((AN: I apologize for any typos))

Bo could only stare at Lottie at first. What she was saying didn't even make sense? Pre wouldn't do something like that. He wouldn't have had Bo's mother killed. That… he wouldn't do something like that to her and just… just no.

"That's not true," Bo finally managed to get out.

"I'm almost positive that it is," Lottie said. She ran her tongue over her teeth.

"You think that Pre would have hired someone to kill my mother?" Bo tried not to show any emotion. Somehow, she did a decent job. "He… it doesn't make sense. Besides, he wouldn't have someone else do it. He'd… if Pre killed someone he would do it himself." She hated that she had to put that in it, but it was true. Pre would think having someone do his killing was weak.

"I know it's not usually his style, but he would do what he thought was necessary." Lottie went over to Bo's bed, which was more like a cot and sat down on it. How could she be so calm when she was saying horrible things?

Part of Bo wanted to slap her. Just how dare she say things like this? And how dare she act like it wasn't a big deal? She had to know how much this would hurt Bo.

"Why would he do something like that?" Bo ground her teeth together hard enough that pain shot through her. She didn't care. She was in Death Watch. She was going to have to get used to pain that was a lot worse.

Lottie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious?"

Oh, how Bo couldn't stand her right now.

"You want to hurt me, don't you?" Lottie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Stop acting so feral, Bo-Katan. If you're in Death Watch, you'll have to be able to control—"

Bo grabbed her arm and yanked her up. "I can control my emotions when someone isn't telling me someone who is like a dad to me murdered my mother."

Lottie scowled and yanked her arm away. She rubbed it. "I'm trying to help you, Bo-Katan."

"Tell me why you think he would do something like this," Bo demanded. "You better tell me now."

"Fine." Lottie stopped rubbing her arm. "He'd want to be able to win your trust, and he must have thought it would be easier if your mother wasn't in the picture." She paused. "Even if it does sound like your mother sucked."

Bo balled her fists together, even if Lottie was right. Her mother hadn't been good to her, but Bo didn't want to think about that. It wasn't even relevant to this situation.

"You're thinking about how it doesn't matter," Lottie said, still not getting to what Bo needed to know. "How it doesn't matter if she was the worst."

"She wasn't the worst and why can't you get to the point?"

"I'm just saying it because it applies to Satine too."

Bo clutched her head. Ugh, she should just make Lottie leave. She had to be wrong, but what she said wasn't something that Bo could just ignore.

Lottie sighed. "He would have been able to get you to rely on him more if your mother was out of the way. He could gain your trust. He probably figured that Satine wouldn't have that much time for you, even if she cares about you. Ruling Mandalore has to be a lot of work."

Bo didn't blink. "And why would Pre want to get close to me? Why would he want to help someone like me when he has to have better things he could be doing?" After all he not only was the governor of Concordia but ran Death Watch. She was just a teenager.

"Because it looks bad for Satine if you're on his side and the closer you are to him the worse it looks for her." Lottie studied her. "I wouldn't be surprised if he had other plans too."

"What other plans?" Bo asked, even though Lottie's face had darkened. "Actually, I don't care because none of this is true. He didn't do anything to hurt my mother. He wouldn't do something like that."

But Bo did care. She wanted to hear what Lottie had to say. No, that wasn't right. She needed to hear it. Could she have been tricked in such a way? No, she didn't want to believe that, and she didn't want to believe that Pre would do anything to hurt her.

"Pre wouldn't hurt my family."

She sighed. "He plans to kill your sister."

Bo stared at her. It felt like her heart had stopped. She tried to get some words out, but she couldn't say anything. The words wouldn't form. It just…

"Don't say it doesn't make sense because you know it makes sense. You know he doesn't think your sister should rule."

"I… she shouldn't rule," Bo said, somehow managing to get it out. "She's hurting Mandalore." None of this sounded like it belonged to her, but she was hurting Mandalore with her crazy policies. But that didn't mean that Pre would do anything to hurt her.

"Yes, and Pre wants to rule Mandalore."

"He—"

"You really don't think this, Bo? You know he does. It's obvious. He has the kriffing Darksaber. You just joined, but all he does is talk about overthrowing Satine. He'll kill her once he does. I wouldn't even be surprised if he had your nephew killed since he might cause trouble for him in the future. I'm sure he wants to keep you around just because you're useful to him and he can have you be his little Kryze puppet."

Puppet? Bo wasn't a puppet. Her mother and Satine always told her that no one could control her. No one… And yet Bo's stomach twisted. She shouldn't even be listening to this. Why was she even letting it get to her?

But something about it. What if…?

"You… He wouldn't kill Satine or Korkie," she whispered this. It was partially to herself and not to Lottie. "And he wouldn't have killed my mother. He wouldn't hurt me."

Lottie stared at her. Bo wished that she would just take back everything she said. She wished that she would say this was a cruel joke, even though Bo would hate her for saying something like this. It would be better than Bo having fallen in a trap.

"You don't believe me," Lottie said, putting her hands on her hips. "But I bet I can prove it."

Bo raised an eyebrow.

"We'll sneak into my uncle's house and we'll find something there. Something that proves he had your mom killed and that he plans to do the same with your sister when and if he takes over Mandalore."

"That… Pre wouldn't like if I did that." That was an understatement. He would be furious if they did this and they got caught.

Lottie sighed and shook her head.

"But I don't care," Bo said. "Let's do it."

-Scene Break-

The two of them snuck out of the camp and were heading to Pre's house. Hopefully he wouldn't even be there and would still be with Death Watch. It would make this a lot easier.

"Once we find proof, we need to get out of here," Lottie said, walking next to Bo. "We can fly all over the galaxy."

"No, I'll have to go back to Mandalore," Bo said. She would have to tell her sister everything and nothing would be the same. Her sister would probably be furious with her for leaving, even if she had come back, and she maybe she would hate her for being tricked by someone who had hurt their family so much.

"You don't," Lottie said. "We can—"

"We don't even have a ship," Bo said, which made her realize that she didn't know how she would get back to Mandalore if Pre didn't want her to. She bit her lip hard enough that she could taste blood.

She didn't care.

"We can steal one of my uncle's. It's what the asshole deserves after everything he has done."

Lottie didn't have proof that he had done anything yet. Maybe she was just wrong. She didn't think Lottie would have made something like this up, even if she could be mean. She wasn't this cruel. At least not to Bo.

But Bo just still couldn't see Pre doing something like this.

"We should sneak off this rock together," Lottie said. She grabbed Bo's hand and stopped her. "Even if it's just to go back to Mandalore."

"I thought I was an annoying child. I'm surprised you'd want to be around me."

"Maybe you're finally not a child anymore," Lottie said. "Everyone has to grow up eventually."

Bo examined her. "Wouldn't you rather run off to be with your boyfriend? You know the secret one you never let me meet." It was strange that so much time had gone by and she hadn't met Lottie's boyfriend she claimed that she was deeply in love with. It was just Lottie always had some kind of excuse. Bo had given up asking about him.

Lottie sighed and touched her stomach. It reminded Bo of something, but she couldn't say what. "It's complicated." She kept her hand there. "We can meet up with him eventually anyway. Just promise you won't leave me, Bo. I don't want to be alone."

Bo paused but then nodded. "That's if your uncle actually did something, which I'm sure he didn't."

Lottie moved her hand away from her stomach and her eyes darkened. "You'll see, Bo. You'll see."

"Then I won't leave you here if he… he did do something. We'll leave together, I promise."

They didn't say anything else as they walked. Bo kept telling herself over and over again that Lottie had to be wrong about this. That Bo wasn't a stupid child who would let herself be tricked by someone who was willing to act like a mentor and a father to her. That she wasn't that naïve and stupid. That Pre actually did care about her.

That she hadn't betrayed her mother's memory by trusting him.

Eventually they got to Pre's house. It was dark, but that could just be because he was sleeping. It was around one in the morning after all. Most people would be asleep.

"Do you have keys?" Bo asked Lottie.

"No, do you think my uncle would actually give me those? He doesn't like me." She raised an eyebrow. "Did he give you keys?"

"No."

"Good, that would be weird and…" She shook her head. "We can just lockpick the back door." She touched the front door. "This one has too good of a lock, but I know the back one isn't as good. It should be easy. I'm good at lockpicking anyway."

Lottie didn't wait for Bo to say anything else and walked off. Bo followed her to the back door. Sure enough Lottie was able to get that door opened fast. Bo knew how to pick locks too, but she was no master of unlocking. Then again neither was Lottie if she had to come back here.

"Should we check out his office?" Bo asked. She had searched that before and come up with nothing, but maybe now she would have better luck. Now she had Lottie with her who was better at picking locks and might know where some things were that she didn't.

"Yes, but not the office you think," Lottie whispered back to her.

"What?" Bo asked.

Lottie jerked her head and the she walked off. Bo followed her and soon they got to a room that was locked.

"Pre told me that was a closet," Bo whispered, even though she wasn't even sure Pre was here. The house was silent, but that might not mean anything.

"Of course, he did. I'm supposed to think that too, but I'm smart." She tried to open the "closet" but it didn't budge. "And who the kriff locks a closet?"

Bo shrugged, even though Lottie wouldn't be able to see her well. "Maybe it has important things in it."

"Oh, I'm sure it does." Lottie was working on getting the door open with her lockpick. Bo just watched. She should get better at doing this herself. It would be useful.

"Maybe we should have talked to Ursa. She—"

"Ursa's just a pawn." Lottie didn't even look at Bo.

"Does she even like Pre—"

Lottie shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. She still does what he wants. She's the kind of person who is always someone's pawn."

"That's not tru—" But Bo didn't get to finish.

"I got it!" Lottie pushed open the door. The two of them went in. Lottie turned the light on, even though it was risky. They didn't really have much of a choice. They would have to be able to see what they were looking for.

Pre's office looked… well… like an office. He had a dark wood desk that looked like it was expensive. Actually, Satine had one that was pretty similar. On the walls were some historical pieces of the Darksaber.

"This is his office we're not supposed to know about," Lottie said as if Bo hadn't realized that.

They started looking after that. Bo picked up some data pads right away and started to scroll through them, trying to find something. Doing this didn't feel right. Not when Pre had done all he had for her. But if they found something, she wouldn't care she had betrayed Pre anymore.

They still hadn't found anything when she saw the lights in the hallway turn on.

Lottie whisper swore and then shoved Bo into the closet.

"Be quiet and don't come out," Lottie said, her eyes dangerous. "I don't care what happens."

Bo couldn't even pull her in because she pushed Bo to the floor and then closed the door. That was when Bo heard the office door open.

"What the kriff are you doing here?" Pre yelled.

Lottie let out a cry. What was going on? Bo wanted to see. No, she needed to, but Lottie wanted her to not come out. She would know this was going to happen, but still she had wanted her to stay hidden despite it.

Bo would do that.

"I… I… Let me go!"

Pre swore. "You're causing everyone enough trouble as it is and now you're going through my things. You're lucky you're a Vizsla, but even that shouldn't be enough."

There was a thumping noise and Lottie took a deep breath. Maybe he had put her down? Damn it! Bo couldn't stand this. She wasn't the kind of person who just let things like this happen.

And hearing Pre acting this way… Yes, Bo had seen other sides of him, but she didn't like it. And this seemed like it could be worse.

"You have to be even more of a shame to our family?" Pre went on. "It isn't bad enough that you got knocked up by one of those freaks. Now you're up to something else."

Lottie was pregnant? How was that even possible? Yes, she had a boyfriend, but surely, she wouldn't have been stupid enough not to use protection. She was eighteen. She should know better. She shouldn't make such a careless mistake. How could she be so stupid? Bo would never do something that foolish. She was smarter than that.

"I wasn't up to anything, Uncle," Lottie said, somehow making uncle sound sarcastic.

"You think—"

"Okay, maybe I was trying to find evidence you had Bo's mom killed," Lottie spat out.

Pre swore. "How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't have anything to do with that?"

Instantly relief filled Bo. He hadn't had her mother killed. Lottie was wrong. Yes, Pre could be hard, but he hadn't done anything to hurt her mother.

"You have no problem with wanting to kill her sister once you take the Throne."

"That's different and you know it."

He didn't deny it. He didn't deny that he wanted Satine dead. He… And he wasn't even done yet.

"You know Satine's dangerous to our cause and a traitor. She deserves to be punished. She should pay."

Bo was going to be sick. She wanted to let out a cry. But no. No. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She had to stay silent. She might have to break Lottie out if she didn't find a way to do it herself.

Pre did want Satine killed. Maybe Satine was wrong about how she was ruling Mandalore and maybe she wasn't the best sister, but she was still related to Bo.

And even now Bo still loved her.

Bo thought she was making the right choices. She thought she was doing what she had to for Mandalore, but now… but now… she was confused.

Confused and betrayed.

((AN: I appreciate any comments. Thank you for reading!))