a/n – Ao the liquor vendor's name is Japanese for blue, and is pronounced 'ah-oh'. He's also very stupid lol. Also FYI, I make a reference to sex trafficking in this chapter, so if that's something that triggers you, I apologize. Anakin started out as a slave, and I'm sure that these sorts of people-trafficking is absolutely rampant in the Star Wars universe.

I know this chapter is a lot from Dyn's perspective, but I'm hoping the next chapter will be a little more evened out…

Chapter 8 – The Spy

Back at the ship, Ter'a watched the Mandalorian check and load the supplies he'd ordered from Mekkie's shop and began to think through their next steps. First, of course, they'd be going to where he'd had picked up the Merenzane Gold to see what they could find out about who had tipped Gideon off that he and the child were travelling to Takodana. If everything went their way, they'd be able to track down the spy and stop them.

She shifted her feet. After all that was over, and assuming they didn't have to make any sort of hasty exit and go find somewhere to hide, they'd head to Tatooine to find the Mandalorian's contact who supposedly knew someone who should be able to help them get some data from the data file they'd gotten from the Archives. Ter'a thought hard on this… she wasn't sure whether or not the data could be recovered enough to get anything worthwhile out of it, but she had to maintain hope. Without garnering something useful from the data file, they'd be back at square one and would have to continue to travel randomly through the galaxy hoping for a coincidental clue to pop up. Ter'a decided though, that regardless of whether or not they got any useful information from the data file, she was going to concentrate her meditations on this matter and channeling the Force to try and find a trail of breadcrumbs they could follow.

"Ter'a."

She started. She'd been so out of it thinking about the data file, she didn't notice the Mandalorian had stopped looking over the supplies and was standing right in front of her trying to get her attention. She also noted vaguely that that was the first time he'd called her by her name.

"Sorry, I was thinking about the data file…"

"It's okay. Help me with the kid please?"

She looked around him, he'd already loaded more than half of them but the child was waddling around the crates and the Mandalorian sounded slightly annoyed.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, pushing past him. This whole data file thing had her on edge for some reason. The more she thought about it, the less she was sure about some random techie on Tatooine looking at this sensitive information.

"I'm not annoyed at you," he said sensing her own annoyance immediately, "it's the kid. He's walking around under my feet. I'm either gunna step on him or bust my own ass."

She looked around at him and smirked. "Oh. Okay. No problem."

He tilted his head at her. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, "This trip to Tatooine. It has me a little on edge. Those back-alley techies aren't exactly the most trustworthy…"

"I know. I thought about that too. But we don't have much of a choice." He paused before going on, as though he knew she'd probably disapprove of what he was about to say. When he spoke, he spoke slowly, weighing each word, "If we get there… and he doesn't seem like he can keep his mouth shut… we can… we can take care of him… after he finished the work?"

He was right to think this wasn't a particularly savory idea to her. She didn't want to kill anyone, really. Even if they'd been trying to kill her… a Jedi's last resort should be to kill someone or something. But… the child's life, as well as their own lives, could be at stake. She looked down and took a deep breath before nodding her agreement.

She picked up the child and let him play with one of her braids while the Mandalorian finished.

Dyn waited while the Crest's ramp closed so they could walk back to the turbolifts. She said she was feeling on edge about going to Tatooine, but he was on edge about finding this spy. Personally, he knew that this would be the difference in their ability to have some quiet time to search rather than having to be constantly on the run. Though, in reality, even if they shook Gideon off here at Coruscant, he'd still be keeping an eye out for them. In fact, he'd likely send out even more spies to track them down.

"You know," she started as they stepped into the lifts at last, "I'd like to shower at some point."

"There's a shower in the head on the Crest. Once we leave Coruscant, it's all yours."

"I saw it…" she didn't sound to enthusiastic.

"What's wrong with my shower?" he said a little too defensively.

"Nothing at all. It's just… it's a ships shower… so, it's small… cramped. You know."

Dyn sighed and nodded. She was right, he conceded. He didn't really like to use it himself all that much. He much rather preferred to have room to move around without his elbows bumping the sides.

"We can get a room here in one of the hotels if we're able to after this. I'd like to shower too, actually."

She smirked.

"But you know that we might not be able to do that?"

"I know," she nodded.

The lifts came to a halt on the street and they headed for the liquor vendors.

"What's your contact look like?" Ter'a asked as they passed stalls of different vendors of different species pushing different liquors.

"He's a blue Twi'lek named Ao."

She nodded.

"Let me do the talking."

"No problem. This is bounty hunter work, I'm not much for shaking people down."

Dyn let out a breath of a laugh.

Several more stalls down they saw him. Dyn came to a stop in front of the stall and Ao looked up from counting the credits he'd just gotten from a Gamorean who was walking away with a couple bottles.

"Mando! I didn't expect to see you back so soon!" Ao looked excited and probably expected Dyn to make another large purchase.

"Hey Ao."

"Who's your friend? She's pretty." Ao looked up and down at Ter'a in what he thought was a knowing, appreciative way before looking back at Dyn with a laugh, "I should have known you liked small girls. Where did you buy her?"

Inside his helmet, Dyn made a disgusted face. Ao thought that he had purchased Ter'a from a sex trafficker. He glanced at Ter'a whose face had turned quickly from mild curiosity to stony dislike at a lightning's pace and he laughed to himself. How could Ao possibly think she was a purchased girl? She was far too healthy looking, and she didn't have any of the trademark aura of fear about her. Secondly, she looked way to strong and powerful… Ao couldn't read people at all…

"She's my associate Ao, not a purchase." For good measure he looked at her and added, "I've worked with her several times before. Her name is Takara." Not missing a beat, Ter'a nodded in agreement.

"Of course, my apologies Takara," said Ao bowing slightly in her direction. "Now, what can I get for you today, Mando?"

Dyn glanced left and right slightly to see if anyone was watching, but as he suspected, everyone was far too engrossed in their own business; hopefully Ter'a would get the hint and keep something of a lookout. He saw that she was wise to his thoughts and began to nonchalantly look around. Dyn leaned close to Ao and said, "How many people work for you?"

Ao looked startled and put on his guard but said, "Only three… w-what is this Mando?"

"Someone followed me to Takodana and tried to kill me. What do you know about that?"

Ao looked positively frightened now and stammered, "I don't know anything about anything, Mando, I swear!" as he leaned away with his hands up slightly.

Dyn grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him towards him aggressively and said in a harsh whisper with his teeth gritted, "Put your hands down and keep your voice down. If you didn't do anything, you don't have anything to worry about. Now, who do you know that would've known about my Merenzane job and where that shipment was headed?"

Ao thought for a moment and then said shakily, "I-it had to be Sio? H-he works for me. He was the o-only one I had working o-on that job!"

Dyn growled and jerked the Twi'lek closer.

"That's it! I-I swear!" Ao was sweating now and Dyn knew he was telling the truth and released him. Ao staggered back. "Who'd want to kill you?"

Dyn ignored him and looked behind him. Ter'a looked sideways up at him and back out at the full street. He turned back to Ao and said, "Where can I find this Sio?"

Ao looked for a moment like he didn't want to tell him where to find Sio, but Dyn placed both of his hands on the counter and leaned forward, tilting his head to the side, and Ao lost his nerve, "In the Projects! P-Project H, a-all the w-way a-at the end o-on the l-left," the alien's voice was shaking almost uncontrollably now, "T-third f-floor, green h-house!"

Dyn pushed back off the counter and said "And you're not going to warn him that we're coming, or we'll be back," and strode away with Ter'a behind him.

Ter'a hadn't yet seen the Mandalorian get really angry or rough with anyone, and if the street hadn't been full with all sorts of the emotional interactions from dozens and dozens of other people, Ter'a might have been concerned that he was getting rough with Ao in public, but there was so much going on that one more scuffle hardly seemed to matter.

She'd done her duty and kept an eye out while the Mandalorian questioned him, and Ao got progressively more frightened until he could hardly talk.

She would have been extremely annoyed when he asked where the Mandalorian had bought her, but instead she knew that he was just an idiot. But when Mando had given her a fake name and said he'd worked with her several times before, she marveled at his improvisation skills, and once he started to get rough with Ao, Ter'a was impressed. He didn't even reallyhave to get rough, just tugging his tunic a bit had been terrifying enough for the Twi'lek to tell all he knew, and Ter'a sensed the truth to his words. The Mandalorian had a real intimidation factor that Ter'a knew wasn't just because of the helmet. Mandalorians in general weren't known for being overly amiable to begin with, and her Mandalorian had a real battle-hardened aura about him; more so it felt, than the few other's of his kind that she'd met.

After finding out where they could find this Sio, the Mandalorian had threatened Ao not to tip him off lest they return for him, and simply walked away. Ao had looked with abject horror at Ter'a and shook his head vigorously, causing his long, blue lekku to flap behind him. He seemed to be on the verge of tears. Ter'a turned away and followed the Mandalorian, interested to see how he would deal with Sio if he proved to be the one who had been spying…

Dyn was feeling particularly authoritative as he walked away from Ao's vendor stall as beings parted the waters to let him pass with Ter'a close behind. The last thing he saw when he walked away were Ao's lekku flapping as he shook his head in heed of Dyn's warning.

Suddenly, he was in no mood to be trifled with.

They stopped when they reached the shuttle stop and flagged down a taxi that would take them to Project H. As they got in, Dyn was praying to himself that Ao didn't tip Sio off. Dyn had always like Ao, and felt bad getting so angry with him, but upon further reflection Dyn remembered that Ao had thought Ter'a was a sex slave and his pity vanished. As the driver pulled back into traffic, he told them it would be about fifteen minutes to the Projects. Dyn looked to the left at Ter'a who was looking out of her window. "Have you ever been to the Projects before?"

"No. I know about them though… their reputation."

"Okay, good. So… just be careful…" he trailed off and looked away.

"I could say the same for you. Are you alright?" she waited until he looked back at her before finishing, "I haven't seen you get that angry yet."

"I'm good. Just trying to get the information we needed."

"I think you didn't like it when he suggested that you'd bought me from a trafficker."

Gods she was astute. Dyn blinked slowly. It was undoubtedly part of her Jedi abilities. No one could generally read him well because of his subdued tone of voice and his helmet, but she could read him like a book that sat open in the suns. Granted, this particular time, he'd not been exactly subdued with his annoyance at the Twi'lek's comments…

"Weren't you?"

"Well, I would have been if his comments didn't betray his intelligence level…" she said evenly looking back out the window. "If he'd even given me a seconds' longer look he'd've realized that I'm far too healthy looking to have been in a trafficking ring… as well as the fact that I don't look terrified at everyone's slightest movements."

Dyn grinned slightly. She thought the same thing that he did about Ao's less-than-accurate judgement of her, and in hindsight, he felt silly for letting it get him so upset.

The cab slowed and stopped at the head of the street for Project H. Dyn paid the driver and they piled out onto the street. Once the driver had gone, the pair of them looked down the street and then at each other and back again before starting to walk down the left hand side. They would need to look out for each other in here. Coruscant's Projects were notoriously rough and were one of those places in the galaxy that so often was the starting piont for someone's life story in the trafficking trade. Despite knowing that she was more than capable of handling herself, and probably because of Ao's remarks, Dyn found himself keeping close to Ter'a, walking slightly behind her so he could see her at all times and often reaching out to touch her to let her know he was there as well, though he knew she couldn sense him there anyway through the Force.

Eyes and faces of countless species leered out at them as they walked along, trying to keep as close as possible to each other and the shadows on the side of the street, and trying, perhaps too desperately, to blend in with the community.

Ter'a could handle herself… hell, she could cut down most of these people single-handedly, but this place was rough, and she couldn't have been more thankful that the Mandalorian was behind her. She initially felt a mild annoyance that he was walking so closely to her, reaching out to touch her arm every so often, but as they walked block after block she was more and more grateful. It was getting exhausting to be so constantly vigilant, and when she accepted that he was more than willing to share in the vigilance, she relaxed slightly. Anyway, it's not like anyone would be able to sneak up on them without at least one of them noticing… the Mandalorian was so on edge, his wariness was palpable to her through the Force, and she would sense movements coming in their direction before the perpetrator had even begun his attack.

From the head of the street, the driver had told them that it was ten blocks to the end, but he wouldn't drive them down there and save them the trouble. He told them that drivers stopped going down the Projects streets around the time of the rise of the Emperor. It was almost as though the dregs of society sensed the lacking of "good people", stopped being afraid, and rose up to meet anyone who dared to venture onto their turf.

Finally, the Mandalorian pulled up and hooked his fingers under her arm to stop her too.

"We need to be careful so we don't spook him."

"Agreed. How do you want to do this?"

"Well," he said slowly, "we've been closely watched since we started down the street because we stand out so much. If everyone in whole Project doesn't already know we're here, we should head inside of this housing block," he indicated the housing flats directly in front of them, "and cross over the last two flats to our guys' place."

She nodded in agreement.

They headed inside of the housing block and made straight for the closest staircase so they could make their way to the third floor, meeting no one along the way.

On the second-floor landing however, Ter'a stopped him.

"Wait. We should cross over one block here before heading up again…"

"Right."

They crossed the landing to the hallway that would lead them to the next block of flats and the final stairway. After they climbed at last to the third floor and stood on the landing, they looked around.

"You didn't ask what Sio looked like…"

"Didn't need to."

"Why not? How're you going to know it's him?"

"Because he's got to be the terrified looking Chiss in that corner."

Ter'a spun around as Dyn stared the Chiss down. As he stared, the Chiss seemed to try and melt into the corner where he was cowering.

"They said you were coming," he stammered. "As soon as you entered the project. I knew you'd come."

Ter'a spun to see what on Alderaan the Mandalorian was talking about but she saw the Chiss immediately and looked from Sio to the Mandalorian to see who would make the first move. This Chiss was without a doubt the guilty party that was sending info to Moff Gideon, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be so scared.

The Mandalorian stared down at the Chiss and began to advance. Ter'a felt uneasy and put her hand on her lightsaber and spoke slowly to the Mandalorian, "Be careful, Mando, we should be careful…" she looked behind her as she followed the Mandalorian at a distance. "If we make too much noise, we may bring the whole Project down on us… … and that's the last thing we need…"

Dyn stopped. She was absolutely right… Not that he was planning some loud interrogation, but he did need to be careful…

He walked the rest of the way to Sio and beckoned him to stand up with his pistol pointed at Sio's heart. He spoke to the Chiss slowly, "You are going to answer all my questions. If you cooperate, I might let you live." He knew now though, that he couldn't let the Chiss live… Dyn had absolutely no doubts that if he let the him live, he would run directly to Gideon and tell him what he'd seen and heard… and who he was with. With a jolt, Dyn realized that by letting Sio live after they were done with him meant endangering Ter'a's life too, and as Gideon didn't yet know about her, Dyn wasn't going to be the one to bring it his attention… If the Moff found the kid interesting for his abilities, Dyn could only imagine how fascinating he'd find Ter'a… Suddenly, he felt angry again.

"You're the spy for Moff Gideon."

"I-I…"

In the same fashion as he questioned Ao, Dyn marched forward and grabbed a fistful of Sio's tunic and jerked him aggressively toward him. He was quite a bit taller than the Chiss and towering over him had exactly the desired effect. Sio blurted out all he knew.

"Yes! Yes, I told him okay! I worked for the Empire as an analyst back in the day... He came to the Projects several weeks ago looking for Imperial sympathizers and former Imperial workers. S-said that he was looking for someone…. A Mandalorian with shiny armor and a kid. A-a little kid. I-I work for Ao and I was there when you ordered th-the Merenzane. You didn't have a k-kid with you, but I figured your armor was nice, may-maybe you just didn't have him w-with you…" he trailed off.

Shaking him, Dyn hissed "What else?"

"He promised 10,000 credits if I found any information on you! What else could I do? I figured, worst case, it was a dead end! Best case, I get enough creds to g-get me outta here!"

Dyn huffed and shoved the Chiss to the ground. "Who else in the Projects knows about this?"

"Only a couple 'o other guys came to see him… and they're both dead. K-killed in a fight in Project K a couple days ago…"

"How sure are you about that?" Dyn crouched over him.

"Very. Gideon met us in an old warehouse in the shipping district… only me and the two other guys showed."

"And how do you know they're dead?"

"I saw it. A bunch of gamblers were there in P.K. like I said! We were betting on Corellian hound fights. During the fourth round, the hounds both killed each other and there was an argument on how to split the creds. I got shot too…!" he pulled up his tunic to reveal a smooth blue body with a scorch mark where the blaster bolt had marked his right side.

Dyn stood up feeling fairly confident with the Chiss's information. Now he needed a silent method of execution.

He backed away a few paces and pulled his blaster on Sio. "Ter'a?"

Ter'a came up to his side, looking nervously from him to Sio. But she seemed to know what he wanted her to do because she said, "Silently?"

He nodded and she raised her hand and ended the Chiss' life.