Disclaimer: The Star Wars universe is not, and never will be, mine. I am but playing with the characters of George Lucas' wonderful galaxy.
Summary: Because I couldn't stop. The slightly OOC and marginally AU musings of Cad Bane on Hardeen prior and during "The Box" and after "Crisis on Naboo".
Chapter 2: The Box
"I'm in if he's in."
The words were spoken gruffly, with firm purpose, and Cad Bane shot Hardeen a slightly dark look. Bonus credits and Hardeen vs nothing and no Hardeen, it seemed, were his options. Or possibly no bonus credits and still Hardeen because his wording implied that he intended to continue sticking to Cad like a mynock on an open power circuit regardless of the duros' decision.
Oh well. Credits were credits. Cad Bane had a reputation to maintain. He refused to sacrifice what promised to be a profitable venture purely because Hardeen happened to be an honourable man he was finding it more and more difficult to properly dislike. Especially after discovering that Hardeen followed team Bylluran Athletic in the Bolo-ball championships.
First things first though, if the Count's almost savage smile at the phrase 'friendly contest' were anything to go by, he was going to need better equipment. The outfit he was wearing was a step better than the prison slops, to be sure, but it lacked the basic extras he needed to truly excel. Like breathing hoses and wrist electrocuters. And flamethrowers...
Unfortunately, as he later found, Serenno was a planet of aesthetic forests and sculptured palaces. A land of rugged beauty both rich and diverse. It was not a planet of advanced and illegal arms dealing. He returned that evening to the Count's estate empty handed.
OOOOOOOO
"So, what kinda 'friendly little contest' do you think the Count's got planned?"
Hardeen was wearing his helmet so both his expression and tone were hard to read. Cad thought he caught a wry note though, and allowed himself the faintest of grins.
"I'd be surprised if we all make it out alive."
Especially if those hammerheads were going to participate. Those herbivores had less luck than a rusty separatist battledroid.
Red eyes narrowed suddenly. Cad Bane came to a halt. Was that...? It was.
"Nice hat."
Hardeen's compassion apparently triumphed over self preservation instincts. Unfortunately for him, Cad knew him well enough now to anticipate the hand that snaked out to catch his shoulder. He brought up a hand to intercept it and shoved Hardeen away. No one got between Cad Bane and his hat.
The ithorian grunted in surprise.
"Where'd ya yet it?"
One hand was hovering above his blaster now. The ithorian had an expression on its face, but that was about all he could tell. The creature had seconds to think up a suitable reply. It drew its blaster. Its smoking corpse hit the floor bare seconds later.
OOOOOOOO
Cad Bane had expected on some level that the Count was exaggerating when he'd spoken of the challenge of The Box. He had classed the motley group of aliens he'd assembled as the best bounty hunters in the galaxy after all, and Cad knew from personal experience that Aurra had more talent in her left hand than half of these fools combined. (The half that didn't contain himself).
He'd been right. Though not admittedly, by as large a margin as he'd been expecting. The gasses in the first room were relatively straightforward; one didn't need Hardeen's warning to know that green, roiling fumes were a bad thing to breathe in. He found himself missing his breathing hoses though.
His own confidence in Hardeen was by now not a surprise. It was a weakness and he was fully determined to conceal it, but there was no denying that when he had followed Hardeen down into the gas he would have been very surprised to have been double crossed.
The second room was harder, if only because precise timing was needed to leap from platform to platform as the deadly spike-tipped things popped out and in. Hardeen's leadership was a surprise though. He gave orders with complete confidence that all the others would follow, and follow they did. Though that might just have been because he happened to be right. His persistence in offering help to Cad Bane as though he, the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, could not jump platforms was by now somewhat less unexpected.
He neither needed nor wanted Hardeen's help. And he was quite capable of pulling himself up from a mistimed jump, whatever his companion might think.
He was balanced now carefully, carelessly, on a stone pillar, as the parwan drank the serum and pushed a tentacle through the crimson ray shield. Hardeen was right again. He was starting to wonder just how an assassin from Concord Dawn knew about obscure alien species and when, or where, he had acquired his leadership abilities.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the selkath slip, precariously balanced between two stone blocks and dangerously close to the deadly walls. He made no move to help it.
The ray shield inched closer. The selkath fell. Hardeen turned back, one hand outstretched as though he would have helped it had he noticed its plight in time. Another merciful gesture from the assassin.
Cad Bane frowned.
And then the parwan had flicked off the deadly shielding and they were walking through to what he suspected was going to be the final room. Five survivors the count had said, and at the moment there were only six of them left. It would have to be a rather pathetic challenge if it failed to kill even one of them.
OOOOOOOO
Cad Bane's innate ingenuity had been tested many times throughout the course of his long career. Between negotiating with sith lords, stealing Jedi holocrons, breaking prisoners out of high security cells on Coruscant and dealing with the Hutts he'd had a good deal of practice at talking, and thinking, fast under pressure.
After Room One he hadn't expected Eval's box to test it. That just went to show that expect the unexpected should have been his code, along with show no mercy and form no attachments.
Only they too seemed strangely frayed.
It was hard to say just who was more surprised by the fact that Hardeen was currently hanging from his wrist wire; himself or Eval. The reaction had been purely instinctive because... because why? His reputation was at stake; he needed to think.
"If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man."