3.

Zo Mara sat silently after her little chat with the Mandalorian. His attitude was as thick and hard as the armor he wore but she felt something else below the anger and trepidation he harbored. Something made of light that ran straight to his core. She could sense he was a different man behind the mask, when he was alone with his little ward. He was a man learning to be something more than just an emotionless Bounty Hunter. But he had also beaten and humiliated her.

"Did you not do the same to him?" Her Master's calm voice echoed in her mind as clearly as if she were sitting beside her. Zo gave her shackles another angry rattle, of course she had. Using the Force to keep him down, pick through his scattered thoughts, nearly killing him as she gave into the anger and hate coursing through her blood. She tried to remember the words of wisdom Master Vatari had always seemed so full of when Zo's temper got the better of her. When the fear and anger threatened to swallow her whole and the path to the darkness seemed so much easier.

She shivered as a deep coldness settled over her, as the memories of the Mandalorian gasping for breath as she used the Force to strangle him reared up. She knew she didn't want to try forcing any more of her will on him. He was already wound tight enough to explode and truth be told he frightened her; with his cold armor, raspy mechanical voice and the endless well of weaponry at his disposal she was out matched at the moment. More importantly, she had made a promise to herself to be done with taking and manipulating others to get what she needed to survive. That's how she fell in with the Balbab Cartel all those years ago and almost surrendered herself to the darkness.

She would find another way. A way that didn't bring her so close to the dark and cold always threatening to consume her. Zo sighed again and thought of the warmth and peace that had brought her back to life; the tiny child that wielded the Force. It had been years since she had been so close to another with her abilities. Unlike her last interactions with Force wielders she was not afraid of the big- eared baby. She closed her eyes and tried to swallow down the sick feeling in her stomach. "In the heart of the Jedi lies her strength. There is no emotion, there is peace…" she breathed out, trying to remember more. Something about anger and hate and the dark side…always the dark side. How disappointed Master Vatari would be in her last surviving Padawan, Zo thought to herself with a sigh.

Din watched the baby sleep in the little floating bed next to his chair. He spent more time than he would admit watching the calm rise and fall of his chest, the different emotions that drifted across his face as he dreamt. He wondered if the child knew or understood what he had done. That he had saved Din's prisoner from the brink of death or that Din was the reason she was dying in the first place. The kid had seen other bounties, had seen Din kill when killing was necessary and never intervened.

But the Kid had also saved Karga. Greef Karga who had planned on turning the kid back into the Imps and reaping an outrageous bounty. Maybe the kid had sensed something in Karga, something good and worth saving. Din himself now counted Greef Karga as a friend and ally in his quest to protect the child.

Din slipped his helmet off and ran his fingers through his hair. "You can't keep him safe." Her words echoed in his head. Words that cut straight to his deepest fear. Gideon might be dead but he knew others still hunted him. The kid deserved better; deserved someone who knew what they were doing, someone who didn't just throw cookies at him every time he cried, or nearly get themselves killed because they didn't know any other way to earn credits. He had to find the Jedi, find someone who understood what the kid was and how to protect him. "Can you fly, huh, kid?" He asked, slipping one of his gloved fingers into the kid's tiny hand. The kid babbled in his sleep and curled his three clawed digits around Din's finger. If he could speak, if they could understand each other things might be easier. They were still a few hours out from the fuel depot at Onderon and Din decided to follow the child's lead and take a nap.

The child woke up hungry. He always woke up hungry. He cooed softly at the big man in the shiny armor. Din sat stretched out in his captain's chair, arms crossed over his chest and long legs propped up on the control panel in front of him. He snorted in his sleep, his helmet falling further against his shoulder. The kid cooed again and sensed another hungry soul in the hold below; the injured, dying woman he had felt calling for help through the Force. He sat up, eyeing the sleeping form of his guardian. The child climbed out of his bed and landed on the floor a few feet below. Din had shut the hatch before settling down for a few hours of respite and the child contemplated his next move. He reached one clawed hand out and the hatch slid open with a hiss. He risked a glance over his little shoulder and watched as Din snored softly beneath his helmet.

Zo had almost fallen asleep, her head lolling against one numb arm as the ship blasted through space. Then, from what she gathered to be the cockpit, came the sound of a hatch sliding open. She straightened up waiting for the large form of the Mandalorian to come jumping down so she could politely ask for that snack she had been dreaming of. Instead came a tiny brown bundle of robes and giant green ears. The child came tumbling out of the hatch and Zo couldn't help the surprised yelp as he plummeted towards the hard steel ground. He slowed down just a few inches from the floor, his little face squashed up in concentration. He opened his big brown eyes and let out a coo, as if he were as surprised as she was that he hadn't crashed to the floor. The surprise lasted only a moment as he dropped the last few inches with a muffled cry.

"Are you alright, young one?" Zo called softly as the baby picked himself up. He cooed sadly as he waddled slowly towards her. "That was a good try. You just need practice and I'm sure you'll stick the next landing." He plopped down in front of her, his little green feet sticking out of the end of his robes. She felt him reaching out towards her, his ability to sense her connection with the Force and an eagerness to communicate. She sighed, "I haven't done this in a long time, little one, and I was never very good at it when I did practice." He cocked his head, blinking those big brown eyes and then his stomach growled. "It might be easier on a full stomach," She smiled, "Do you know where the Bounty Hunter keeps his snacks?"

The ship's alarm sounded as they dropped out of hyperspace and entered the airspace of Onderon. Din stretched his arms over his head and groaned as his back cracked. He unfolded his legs from the control panel and leaned forward to hail the fuel depot's landing pad. "This is Razor Crest requesting landing and refueling."

There was a pause and crackles of static as he waited for their answer. "Razor Crest, you are cleared for landing on bay 12, sublevel B."

Din programmed the directions into the landing computer and swiveled his seat around to raise the lid on the pram. "You feel like stretching your legs— God damn it, " he cursed to the empty pram.

"Does he sing you to sleep every night? Mmm thank you, " Zo leaned as far forward as the shackles around her wrists would allow and took another bite of the protein bar the baby on her lap offered. "You have to slow down, young one, I'm not good at this, remember?"

Pictures flashed through her mind, some coherent enough that she could follow the story the kid was trying to tell her. Like the snippets of the Mandalorian rocking him to sleep and gently singing something in a language neither of them recognized. Others were jumbled and confused; the faces of crying younglings, sounds of blasters and lightsabers and then darkness. So much darkness. The thin connection she shared with the child broke when a loud metallic bang echoed through the ship as the Mandalorian crashed down. "Shit, " Zo muttered as he angrily strode towards them, his cape whipping behind him like an irritated tail.

"Get your hands off him." The Mandalorian growled.

Zo scoffed and pulled at the cuffs still chained to the wall. He kicked aside the pile of protein bar wrappers, swooping down to pick up the kid with one hand and shove her back with the other. Her head banged back against the metal hull. "Why are you such an asshole?" She cursed loudly and kicked her feet petulantly at his ankles. The baby in his arms started balling loudly, kicking his own feet and bending nearly in half with the force of his dramatics.

"What did you do to him?" He hollered over the cries.

"Me? You came down here and disturbed our dinner…breakfast…whatever…" she muttered as Din started softly bouncing the baby in his arms trying to get him to stop crying. "Why don't you try singing to him?"

The Mandalorian stopped pacing and turned to face her, "What did you say?" The kid's cries decreased by an octave once he realized he was no longer the center of Mando's attention.

Zo hummed under her breath, trying to sort through the memories the baby had shared with her. "Buy'ce gal, buy'ce tal, Verbor'ad ures aliit…" she sang offkey, the language foreign and strange on her tongue. The kid cooed happily in his arms and the Bounty Hunter looked from him to his bounty strung up on the wall.

He felt the temperature rise under his helmet. There was no way, no way she knew about that. "How?" His voice rumbled out of the vocoder.

Zo leaned back resting her head against the hull. "He told me." She answered humming the same tune.

The Mandalorian took a step towards her, the hand not holding the child clenched in a tight fist. "He doesn't talk." Every word tighter and quieter than the last.

"Maybe you just aren't listening." She replied looking up into his visor. The kid cooed in response and reached one little green hand out towards her. Against his better judgement Din set the kid back on the ground. He waddled forward, pausing to scoop up a half eaten protein bar before settling back in her lap. He took a bite from the bar before reaching up to offer Zo some. She leaned forward, her copper hair falling in front of her face, "Thank you, little one."

"What else does he say?" The Bounty Hunter asked.

She chewed slowly, "He doesn't say anything."

He sighed in annoyance, quickly losing his patience with her again. "You just said-"

"I sense his memories, his feelings, " she looked down at the baby on her lap. "The ones he wants to share with me...he carries much fear."

The Mandalorian kneeled down on one knee and Zo ducked her head back trying to keep out of reach of his arms just in case he decided to hit her again. "Fear? Is he afraid of me?" He asked.

"Of you?" She asked, tilting her head. The Baby looked up at her then to Mando and cooed around a mushy bite of his snack. "No. He's not afraid of you." She answered after a quiet moment. "He cares very deeply for you. He wants to protect you."

"Protect me, huh?" He replied holding one gloved finger out to the kid. The kid in turn wrapped his clawed hand tightly around his finger and smiled. "I'm the one that's supposed to protect you, bud." Din told him.

"Do you know what makes him special, Bounty Hunter?" she asked.

He turned his visor towards her, "He's a Jedi."

Zo laughed, "A Jedi? Did you hear that, youngling? You're a Jedi."

Mando stood quickly, "You're making fun of me."

"No, no I'm not, " Zo leaned forward earnestly, "I'm not, please. It's just been a very long time since I've heard someone speak of the Jedi like that."

"Like what?"

"Like...we weren't all traitors that deserved to be slaughtered by those we swore to protect." She said quietly. The child's ears dropped with a sad sigh and he set the remainder of his snack down.

The Mandalorian rested his hands on his belt, fingers tracing his blaster and her lightsaber. "You're a Jedi?" He asked in disbelief. He didn't know what he had expected when he found a Jedi but it definitely wasn't her.

She laughed cynically, "A Jedi? My Master used to tell me I would be a great Jedi Knight one day."

"And?"

"And, " Zo looked down at the baby. "My Master is dead and I am not a Jedi."

The Mandalorian sighed, "Do you know how to find a Jedi?"

She shook her head, "I've spent the last fifteen years hiding myself from other Force wielders…" Zo met her reflection in his visor again, "We aren't all as cute and cuddly as this kid."

The ship's landing gear dropped and the thrusters fired as they settled on the landing bay. "Then you're of no further use to me besides the bounty Gor Koresh is willing to pay." He said reaching down and picking up the kid again.