I thunked the helmet back over my head only just before I called Cloud City. It felt strange after two weeks without it. I couldn't remember if I had gone without if for such a long time before. After I had put it on, I mean. But then I couldn't even determine how long I was hiding in this armour without consulting a calendar, either.

It was only three years.

There were scratches in the bulkhead next to my bunk -- three times worth a year. It looked like a prison cell, and it was. I had started marking the days one morning, not long after I had appropriated this identity. I felt, I would go crazy, if I didn't know how long I was already stuck in this armour, this ship, this life.

Over one thousand lines, scratched into the metal.

But none of that mattered now. I punched the comm switch and demanded a place to land. On my screen I could see the small twitch in the corner of the eye of the operator - a mixture of surprise and fear. But, of course, there was no reason to deny my request. Even if Calrissian wanted to protect his old friend, he didn't even know about his arrival yet.

"You are cleared to land on platform 39."

I didn't bother to reply, only nodded microscopically and broke the connection. There would most likely be a reception committee waiting, so I consciously took my time with the post flight routines to keep them waiting. Finally, I stepped down the ramp, my cape billowing dramatically in the ever blowing wind.

To my surprise Calrissian himself was waiting to meet me. The Baron Administrator looked slightly annoyed, but regained his composure quickly, as I approached him. His companions all stood with stony faces and could have been everything from accountants to bodyguards. The wary way in which they watched my approach declared them to be the latter.

"Boba Fett," Calrissian declared in a tone as if he was genuinely pleased to see me. He also opened his arms in a gesture of welcome. "

"I need a quarter and access to the lower levels to the city," was all the greeting I had to offer. It was clear that Calrissian did not like my demands. I took the time to grin under the helmet. "For payment, of course," I added just when the Baron Administrator was about to explode.

Calrissian calmed down immediately and I would have chuckled, if it had not been so out of character. Some people were just fun to mess with.

"Oh, and Calrissian," I added, "I am fully expecting the assassination droid IG-88 to show up here soon. If you keep out of my way, and don't question my proceedings, you won't have to deal with him personally, though." Nonchalantly, I strode away, leaving the Baron Administrator to his thoughts.

I did not intend to use my assigned quarters, but it calmed people if they thought they knew where I was. Not to mention of the advantage it gave me over them. Now all I had to worry about was IG-88. I headed for the lower levels, where the maintenance and recycling took place, to find a good place for an ambush.

Two things were vital, if you wanted to destroy an assassination droid. First, that he did not expect you to be after him, and second, enough power to jolt through him in the nanosecond until he realized his mistake. I was determined to get both.

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Cloud City is a busy place for a small mining colony. Probably because mining is not all that is going on there, but Calrissian would of course disavow that in most colourful language. But I didn't intend to do anything against it. Played right, it would even be a great advantage.

I decided to set the trap for IG-88 in the recycling area. Not because it made sense to me, or even to Solo, but because the assassination droid would believe it made sense. After Calrissian had gotten affirmation to my claim that IG-88 was on his way here, he dad become a lot more cooperative. The idea to have to deal with that one on his own was obviously not one that appealed to him. I go everything I asked for immediately.

Not that I demanded much. Annoying the Baron Administrator was fun, but I did have a job to do. So I got free access, and a load of ion cannons some construction material to keep them in their new place and other electronics that would made for a nasty surprise for IG-88.

I attached the ion cannons to the frame of the second set of doors, in the entry hatch. Not nearly hidden from view as I would have liked, but to be effective, they had to be close. They would be triggered by motion sensors that I put up way back in the corridor. Timing was critical in this operation. If the assassination droid got just a millisecond to react, I'd be dead.

However Boba Fett had stood this. Had he liked risking his life like that, had it been a thrill, a game to him? I felt a mixture of awe and pity for my predecessor. This life was certainly exciting, but also so lethal. One wrong step and your future went up in a blaze. In this continued state of heightened awareness, the world around you took on an unique sheen, a shimmer of perfection, a haze of transience, and in the short times of respite, everything seemed a little blunted, dull, lacking lustre.

In those periods, I'd look back on my life as accountant and wonder how I could ever have been happy with it. And then, in times like this, with my future - again - hanging on a thread of shimmersilk, I knew the allure of my old life too well. With the trigger connected to the motion sensors, I set the cannons on continued fire and made sure I could control them from my suit.

This set of armour is amazing, but it probably has to, if it's owner doesn't want to get killed. All those gadgets and possibilities. I had enough problems getting used to the overlapping of normal sight and the information the visor added. If your head didn't shut down of overload It was a fine thing. Still, I was glad when I could take the helmet off, rub my eyes and see the world as I always thought it was.

Still, a helmet like this might have saved me all the trouble. Automatically, it told me, whether there was a bounty on a person or not. I am sure Kestrel would not have gotten past me then. One day, one day, I promised myself, to take care of him personally. One day, when I had thought up something properly nasty. Real payback, not just revenge.

After installing my little trap, I returned to the upper levels and waited for Calrissian's people to signal me IG-88 arrival. I did not get many bounty alerts, but considering I was wearing my full work outfit, I guessed that a some just took a detour so not to meet me. Except for some of the women, who did just the opposite for the chance to shoot me a ??? glance. But Boba Fett was not a womaniser, oh no, I certainly was not. Unfortunately that seemed to be rather attractive.

I had no idea what it would take to take out an assassination droid, but I was sure he'd have it on him. From a logical point of view, that made sense: the weapon able to destroy an assassination droid had to be the most effective weapon around and thus it was logical to have it. Bless his digital yes/no mentality.

When the call from the flight control arrived, I went back to the lower levels, making sure that I was seen by a multitude of druids. Usually nobody notices them, but they are many. With leaders like IG-88 around we might want to become a little more careful. I took up position next to a portable ion cannon and waited.

This was the critical phase of the hunt, of any hunt. The short period of time in which you could only wait. Either your prey would walk into the trap you put up or not. Now it was out of your hands. You balanced on the Rubicon in perfect harmony - until hell broke loose.

The ion cannons started to fire and the moment was gone. I hoisted my own cannon and stepped through the door just after the next barrage. IG-88 was still standing, blue electricity sparkling all over him, dancing up and down his bulky body. The readouts of my visor showed me just how much damage there was and how fast the droid was repairing himself. A quick one, that. I fired.

The energy blast was enough to throw him into the walls and the to the ground this time. "No microtracker is too small to evade my inspection," I told him. "Found your device on my ship. I knew you were coming."

I approached the fallen form and found concussion grenades. A good choice. Keeping an eye on IG-88 recovery I, I carefully implanted them inside his armoured body after setting the timer on a minute. The droid would be repaired enough to see it coming, but unable to stop it. A fact that I hoped would discourage further pursuit from his friends who were no doubt getting a live feed on the events here.

I left the droid behind, inviting some Ugnaughts to salvage his remains. Calrissian would be happy that the destruction caused so little damage to his floating City. I barely felt the vibration on my way back up. Time to ask some more favours of the Baron Administrator and find the most convenient way to spend my time here.

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Calrissian was very obliging with his offers. I think it had something to do with not blowing the lower half off his city while destroying IG-88. I got a room with a real view, discount on the catering and could roam everywhere I pleased. Additionally, his people were on the lookout for members of Black Sun. They were rare guests, though, and far between.

I set off a last message to Lord Vader, reporting the destruction of the assassination droid and including some interesting files about Cloud City. Calrissian was not a fool, and the official maps tended to be rather inaccurate in some places. Maybe it was unprofessional, maybe I was indulging a weakness, but in a strange way I liked Vader. I wished I knew what kept him going, because it was burning, strong, and a better motor than whatever I could claim. Which was really nothing more than the wish to stay alive.

Then I took of the armour with ceremony and slumped in the hot water of a bath. Simple pleasures like this, stolen moments in which to be myself. They were all that kept me going. And I wondered how long that would be enough, how long a hot bath or an unarmoured afternoon in a park would be worth all the rest.

Maybe I was just fooling myself, though. The bounty hunting life was not all bad. I got the excitement that others dreamed about all their lives, and the same again the very next day. The money was good, and I was even working on a retirement plan. Not that I could ever use it, but even if I had to be a bounty hunter, somewhere deep down I would always be the traditionalist woman I wanted to be. I hoped.

And as such, I appreciated hot baths, warmed towels and free chocolates. All provided by yours sincerely, Mr. Charming, and he didn't even know. Bet he'd bite his own backside if he ever found out. I chuckled and ducked under the water.

Without the Mandalorain armour I could of course, not go all places I wanted, but at least nobody noticed when and where I went. Roaming the public levels of Cloud City gave me pretty good ideas where to watch out for interesting stuff once I put the armour back on. Another effect was that for everybody else, Boba Fett remained a phantom to pop up suddenly and vanish again into nothingness. Good for the myth, I like reputation doing half the work.

Of course, once the Empire arrived I had to stop my little game of hide and seek. It had been a really uneventful time and I hoped Calrissian wouldn't get into too much trouble for the two members of Black Sun that had disappeared mysteriously on Cloud City. Well, accidents happen if you are in a place that floats, and how could I ever pass up a chance to stab a little at the organisation that got me into this trouble. Bad luck, that Fett's reputation didn't really allow me a vendetta.

Calrissian was mightily peeved when Vader announced his arrival in person and his mood did not improve when the Dark Lord abused him as errand-boy to get met. I should have come here much earlier. Calrissian is so much fun.

"If I had known that you work for the Empire, I would not have let you land," he fumed futilely while leading me to Vader.

"There are a lot of things, you don't know about me," I replied. Sometimes I wished the filters wouldn't grate on everybody's nerves so much. The Baron Administrator shut up and the fun was over.

As usual, the door to Vader was guarded by two stormtroopers who stood to attention as if their lives depended on it, which it probably did.

"I hope he chokes you," Calrissian hissed just before he left.

I didn't bother to answer. Of course Vader was famous for his explosive temper, but right now I had delivered good services. And, what was more, and as much a guarantee you could get with Vader, I would continue to do so. It might have been Fett's way to never attach himself to anybody, but that had been him. If he was strong enough to stand the loneliness, let him. I couldn't. I needed to be connected, somehow, anyhow. And the only one around that had the least resemblance to how I felt? Who I was? There was only Vader.

I had tried to pick up Mando culture, langue and stuff. They were still around those warriors, but I had to admit that their uncompromising way of life frightened me.

We live if we live

we die if we die,

so let's have a drink

and the right mate today.

I wanted the safety nets and double bottoms of civilisation. the assurance that, no matter what happened, it wouldn't cost you your life, you job maybe, a friend or two, some money, but never your life. Mando'ade went to lose their lives all the time and called it their way of life. They did not seem very interested in Fett, either. I never had one approach me.

And so I had decided, or let circumstance decide, to side with a dark Lord of the Sith. Vader's Right Hand Man. That was me. And so I was connected again, not severed from all around me, so I had an anchor. If it was weakness, let it. How strong did you have to be anyway, to call Vader your weak spot?

Lord Vader was not alone as I entered. A small group of what looked to be technicians tried to avoid getting closer than necessary to him as inconspicuously as possible.

"Lord Vader." I indicated a bow. " take it you have more work for me?" I cast a glance at the work crew. If they had not been fidgeting already, they would surely have started now. Trapped between the hammer and the anvil.

"Your reports have proved most instructive," Vader's voice grated out of his vocoder. "I want a path cleared and programmed from landing platform 23 to the carbonite freezing chamber. You will show the technicians around."

I nodded, wondering what good that would do and if it was intended for Solo at all. "It will be ready before Solo arrives." But the Dark Lord did not take the bait.

"Good." The door opened as he pointed towards it, and I let the tech crew scramble out before I followed them. Just before I was through the frame, I turned back, though, but before I could even open my mouth, Vader was speaking again.

"Of course, an appropriate amount will be added to your bounty when Solo is delivered." The man could indeed read minds.

I bowed for real this time and left with a flourish. Time to do some work, and who knew? I might just run into Calrissian again and have some more time to push his buttons.