I don't own Star Wars!

sonder (noun)
son·der

The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.

Vree woke that morning to the child tugging on the fingers of her robotic hand. When her dark eyes opened, she saw that the odd pressure she felt on her chest was the child, too; he had apparently climbed out of his carrier at some point and felt the need to come to her. She blinked, the flashes of swords and yelling from her dreams slipping to the back of her mind.

With a soft grunt, Vree sat up in her cot, pulling the child into her lap as he continued to tug on her metal fingers. Carefully, she pulled her hand away, not wanting to hurt him, but he just grabbed hold again.

"Good morning, friend," she murmured, her other hand coming up to pet the child's fuzzy head. She tried to restrain the smile that tugged at her lips when the child looked up at her with large eyes, cooing contentedly before placing her fingers in his mouth. Quickly and gently, Vree pulled her fingers away, wiping the slobber on her pants, and stood, turning to place him back in his carrier.

Immediately, the child began to babble, his tiny hands reaching for her. Shaking her head, Vree reached into her pocket and pulled out a small wooden toy to placate him. He squealed in excitement, and she shook her head fondly.

"I have to repair myself today," she said, her voice low as though she was disclosing a secret. "It will take me a few minutes, but I expect you to stay here, understand?" A few minutes might have been an understatement; her robotic left arm had several wires poking through the cracks and the occasional spark fizzled out, and the plates on her legs were scratched and dented all over.

The child giggled, waving the toy in the air, and Vree took that as an affirmative. She left the room, nodding silently at the nearby Nikto soldiers as she made her way to a room that she had turned into a little workshop. Tools and scraps littered the floor, and she stepped over them with a practiced grace on her way to the small workbench that sat against the wall opposite the door.

Leaning against the wall, Vree slumped down onto the floor, her legs splayed out widely. Grabbing the adjustment laser from the floor, she clicked it on, and it began to hum softly, growing warm, as she opened the panel on her arm and set to work. Occasionally, she moved a wire, adjusting them as the laser fused them back together. A song found its way to her lips as she worked, and she mumbled the words quietly to herself.

Her voice was rough, and it wasn't the prettiest, that Vree knew. The song was an old folk song in Mirialan, a language she wasn't familiar with, but Ayana was, having been a Mirialan herself.

"It's a happy song," Ayana had explained to Vree when the Pantoran had bluntly asked what she was singing. "About flowers and families and coming home at last. I don't think you'd like it." Her words stung just a little, but the teasing smile on her green lips let Vree know that she meant no harm.

Vree hesitated, then scooted closer from her spot on the ground. Their knees brushed against each other as her black eyes studied Ayana's brown ones. "Teach me. Please," she added as an afterthought, a vague memory of someone telling her to to be polite surfacing in the back of her mind.

Ayana grinned, her hair whipping in the cold wind as she nodded. "Of course. Repeat after me." She taught Vree the song line by line, and if she noticed the way her voice seemed to shake, she said nothing, instead telling her about what each lyric meant.

She flipped the panel on her arm shut and shifted her legs, reaching to lift a metal plate off her shin. Just as her fingers brushed the cool metal, alarms began to blare all throughout the compound. Vree jerked to her feet, the laser falling to the floor, forgotten in the rising emergency.

Bursting through the doors, Vree grabbed the nearest Nikto by the collar, jerking him close. "What is happening?" She demanded.

The soldier replied, and though her Nikto was limited, she understood the gist of what he was saying. Bounty hunters had come. Again. She released him with a short nod, turning on her heel and dashing into the main room where the child was kept. He trilled as he saw her, completely unaware of the danger he was in. Quickly, Vree scooped him up and put him in his pod.

"Hush," she said sternly, pointing a finger at the still-cooing child. "You must remain quiet." She shut the pod and moved it against a wall, disguising it among the discarded boxes. As the sound of every door locking rang out, Vree positioned herself around the corner, armed with her electroshock batons, and two guns strapped to her waist. She listened to the sounds of gunfire with bated breath, her fingers tightening on her weapons after every blast.

Eventually, the gunshots quieted, but the Pantoran remained in her crouched stance out of sight. Even though the Nikto soldiers had always succeeded in killing whatever bounty hunters came after the child (and, on occasion, her), Vree never liked to make assumptions. She was soon proven right when several loud gunshots rang out against the door, and it soon collapsed inwards. Her sensors detected two beings who entered the compound: one living, one droid. Both heavily armed. Vree stood, pressing her back against the wall, her jaw clenched because while she was unseen by the bounty hunters, she still couldn't see them, and she still had a disadvantage.

There was a soft hissing sound. One of them had opened the pod. Vree slowly, quietly placed her batons in their holsters, drawing both guns instead and crept closer to the edge of the corner.

"Wait. They said fifty," one murmured in surprise, likely talking about the child.

"Some species age differently," the other said matter-of-factly. "Perhaps it could live many centuries. Sadly, we'll never know."

Just as Vree was ready to leap out from behind the corner, guns blazing, the first spoke again.

"No." A pause, as though he was thinking. "We'll bring it in alive."

"The commission was quite specific," his partner replied. "The asset was to be terminated."

This time, Vree did come out: taking two quiet steps to see a tall droid and a—shit. A Mandalorian.

Pushing the sudden shock aside, Vree raised both her guns, firing at the IG droid that had its blaster trained on the child, hitting it where her sensor told her its central power core was. At the same time the Mandalorian shot the droid in the head, immediately training his gun on Vree.

Vree pointed both of her blasters as him. "Step away from the child and lower your weapon, and I won't have to kill you."

The Mandalorian said nothing for a moment. "This is beskar armor. I suggest you lower yours." There was a tense silence; both refused to put down their weapons, leaving them in a stalemate.

Suddenly, Vree flew at the Mandalorian, blocking his shot with her metal arm. She winced, both at the pain and all her hard work to fix her arm flying out the window. With her good arm, she grabbed his, pinning it behind him and kicking his legs out from under him. The Mandalorian grabbed her where she had been shot, one of his fingers digging into the hole, making Vree yell in pain as he flung her to the ground. Both of her guns were now scattered out of her reach, and she stared down the barrel of his own blaster as he pinned her shoulders down with an armor-clad arm.

"I won't let you take him," she hissed, fighting against his block.

Instead of replying, the Mandalorian used his free arm to fish something out of his pocket. It was a bounty puck, she realized with a sinking feeling. Her feeling was confirmed when he clicked it on, and a fuzzy picture of her face stared back at her. He stood, his weapon still trained on her face as he jerked her to her feet.

"I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."

[this chapter was finished at one in the morning, and it's unedited. i know it kinda sucks, but i'll get around to editing eventually.]

[otherwise, please vote and/or comment and let me know what you think! i'm really excited for this fic! vree's my baby and i love her.]