Hondo and the Jedi were gone, sped off towards the wreckage of the ship to make sure the Sith - or whatever they were - were really dead. They had, as usual, left the cleaning up of the battlefield to the subordinates. This gave them just enough resentment to be capable of betraying Hondo, but not enough to betray at just any measly offer. True piracy.

Bodies were hauled away to a pyre, because individual graves for every pirate who died pulling some stunt or other was work that none of them were willing to do. The camp was set back up to its original haphazard state, and the whole work was peppered with a lot of loud-mouthed bickering about "Hey, now who blew up my speeder? Hope he's on the pile." interchanged with "Oy, Juk took it! Sucks to be that bastard." "Ah, he was a heavy drinker, he had it coming. You heard what alcohol does to the arteries?" Followed by raucous laughter. Their lack of respect for life, applied equally to all, gave them somewhat of a benefit in handling death.

Then they came upon the body of the Jedi.

Four of them, who had been moving bodies in pairs, came to a stop in front of her.

"What about her?" The first asked.

"Can't we put her on the pile?"

"No!" The first scoffed. "Don't be stupid, Farren."

Farren huffed, rolled his eyes, and then asked, with a bitter curiosity, "Why not?"

The other three looked at each other, and shrugged.

"The other one probably wants her." Another put forth.

"But they're all about detachment, Rocko. Maybe if one of them dies, they just - shove it somewhere convenient."

"Well, she's not convenient laying on our front step!" The first snapped, and then reached for his comm. "Hondo? Derk here. Hey, what do you want us to do with the Jedi's body?"

"Ah, the lady. Yes." Hondo responded gruffly. After a moment, "Aaah, Kenobi says he'll take her." There was another pause. "Ay, Derk, maybe wrap her up or - something like people do. She is a lady, after all, and he seems surprisingly broken up."

"But he's a Jedi."

"And I am not! Do you think I know the answers? I am a pirate, Derk! My goodness."

"Alright, boss." Derk clicked off and looked at the others. "You heard him. We got a sheet or something?"

"Sure." Farren ran off.

Derk knelt down and carefully rolled her over, revealing a round face with round cheeks and big eyes, glazed over but a striking blue all the same.

"Come on, get the sand off her." He brushed it off her face, surprised at how soft her skin was. "Huh."

"What?" Jio was the fourth of the group, Rocko's friend who encouraged him to try new things, like kill people and drink his weight in whiskey.

"I dunno." Derk said. "Would've thought a Jedi would be tougher skinned."

"Naw, she wouldn't." Farren reappeared. "She's a Jedi, not a prozzy. They're like - royalty, but not. Only with themselves."

"You mean respect." Jio supplied helpfully. "She still must've really been something, though, to fight like she did and uphold herself like that." (Jio was the more educated one, who knew fancy words like "respect" and "uphold", though not so educated he was always capable of using them properly)

Farren spread the sheet, old and yellowed and full of holes, on the ground.

"Come on." Derk picked up her shoulders, and Jio got her legs.

When they'd laid her out, Rocko said quietly. "She's pretty."

"Yeah." Derk plunked cross-legged in the dirt. "Funny for a Jedi."

"That's right. I heard they're not supposed to have any attachments - a guy could get attached to her real easy." Jio said. "Maybe that's how she got so good at fighting - had to fight off all the men."

They laughed.

Then Rocko, who was on the more innocent side (relatively speaking), asked, "You really think -? She never did it?"

"Nuh-uh. She's a Jedi."

Rocko tilted his head and said, "That is impressive." With a kind of respect that wasn't had often by pirates, and which nobody outside their kind would have expected to come from such a conversation, and in fact without the context of their situation and lifestyle they would have thought it was terribly inappropriate.

"She must've been real special." Farren said. He reached forward, hands hovering just over the ring of holes stabbed into her abdomen, with the largest, from the Sith's laser sword, just off-center. He pulled back. "Done in by such a brute, too. I guess he's the only one who could've done it."

"I bet." Jio said. "How often you hear of a Jedi dying?"

"Whaddya think they do with the bodies?"

"I heard they've got catacombs." Jio offered. "But you'd think they'd get full. They've been around for - I dunno, forever, I guess."

They looked at the body a minute longer.

"Weird." Rocko said finally.

"She's got pretty eyes." Derk observed, rather awkwardly. They were big and dark and beautiful. He could've gotten lost in them, except they were dead. He reached forward and pushed them closed.

Farren folded the sheet over her and then took his knife out, cutting slits in the edges. "There. Tie those together."

They worked tying the loose edges into knots around her, and Rocko asked, "So - the Jedi - they're born with it, right?"

"I heard they train their whole lives." Farren said.

Jio scoffed. "It's both. You know how they throw rocks and stuff around without touching it - they're born with that. The rest of it's training."

"Shoulda trained harder, I guess."

"But that guy was big." Rocko said. "Besides, if she'd been training her whole life - what else was she supposed to do?"

"You saw her fight." Derk added. "She did pretty good, except he was built like a rock."

"It's not right." Jio said sourly.

Derk grunted his agreement (or something like that) and tied the last knot, and not two minutes later they heard the thrum of a ship in the distance. It appeared, kicking up dust riding close to the ground.

Derk picked the Jedi up under the shoulders and knees, surprised at how light she was.

As the ship came to a stop, he walked forward, far too used to the dirt to care anymore.

The loading ramp slammed down and Hondo and Kenobi walked out. Hondo's nose was wrinkled in only the slightest distaste at the dust, while Kenobi had a hand over his eyes, squinting out at the landscape. His expression softened when he saw Derk carrying the Jedi's body.

"Derk!" Hondo shouted. "Obviously, Kenobi's ship is in no shape for travel - he will borrow that one." He pointed.

Derk glanced at it, and then at Hondo. "She's not in great shape."

"Neither is Kenobi!" Hondo slapped him hard, on the back, such that the already-miserable Jedi pitched forward. "Do not worry. She will get Kenobi to Coruscant."

"Are we getting it back?"

"Doubtful. That is why I give him a bad ship."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Hondo huffed. "Of course it does. Kenobi, I bid you farewell. Please dispel of the crazy Zabraks before they kill any more of my men or -" He motioned to the body. "Your women, hmm?"

Kenobi looked at her mournfully. "I will do my best, Hondo."

"Your best! Hmm. That just may work. Good day, Kenobi."

"Ah, you too, Hondo." Kenobi sighed.

He looked at the ship loaned him, and then back at Derk. "Shall I take her?"

He looked like a light breeze might topple him, but Derk carefully passed over the body.

"She was pretty," He said, even though it wasn't important at all to tell him that, but he was a Jedi, did he know? "Pretty eyes."

Kenobi raised an eyebrow, almost amused, mostly sad. "Well, I'm sure if she was alive she'd appreciate the compliment."

"Would she?" Derk asked. "She's a Jedi."

"Oh, she would. The Jedi are not vain, but we are not blind to what we've been given." He went quiet. "Master Gallia had many gifts to be killed by such a disgusting - animal." A hint of bitterness hung in his tone and his fingers tightened on her shoulder (slim, she was folded up and small in his arms, though she must have been bold in life), and Derk wasn't sure whether or not it was okay for Jedi to do that.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat gruffly. "Look, Jedi - I hope you get the bastard. He killed a lot of us too."

Kenobi looked up. "Do you really care for each other?"

Oh! That was a question.

That was the same question he'd just answered for Derk, although it had raised about a dozen others Derk didn't have the moral precedence or bother to ask.

He shrugged. "Dunno, Jedi. Too mushy for me to bother wondering about."

Kenobi chuckled, although it may have cracked at the end. "I hope you and your friends figure yourselves out."

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Derk shrugged. "Careful headed back, Jedi. I hear there's pirates out there."

"Heh." Completely devoid of mirth. "Thank you."

He turned away, looking down at the faint outline of the lady's face through the dirty sheet.

Derk watched him walk towards and disappear into the ship.

Three minutes later, the Jedi Kenobi and his mysterious fallen sister were gone.

A/N: Lemme know if there's any formatting issues with this mess. I've published on FFnet before (deleted account, different fandom) but it's been a while and there were always issues with it.