The short, stout pillars of the looming palace came into view as Din drove as quickly as possible. Like the time capsule it was, nothing had changed about the place – nothing that he could see, anyways.

Please be here. He could feel the sweat coating his palms as he shut off the bike before the large palace doors, basking the surrounding area in silence. He didn't stop to think as he stepped to the doors and opened them in the same fashion Lili had years ago.

The interior, which smelled musty and damp, was basked in darkness. It was silent as it had been, but as Din took a step forward, a strange, calculated clicking came from the shadows.

He immediately took aim at the shadows. He waited.

A large, metal leg stepped from them, followed by another, then more until Din realized it was a spider droid. Attached to its bottom was a large jar containing a strange yellow substance and a brain within.

Cursing to himself, Din lowered his weapon as he realized the spider droid had no interest in intercepting him. Despite the disturbing discovery, Din continued onwards.

He'd made it two more steps before there was more clicking, followed by the sound of blasters raising. Din froze.

"State your business." More of the strange spider droids left the shadows, but with them were aliens wearing brown robes, tall black hats, and metallic ornaments with large black glasses. There were dozens of them, all staring with big eyes and straight faces. The one who spoke was different than the others – with pink skin covered in thick brown fur and two large tusks, the whiphid looked different from the rest.

"I'm looking for somebody." Din didn't move, and neither did the monks surrounding him. The whiphid straightened out.

"The bounty hunter. I was like you once," the whiphid spoke. "You will not find anyone here worth taking."

"Her name's Lili." A soft murmur travelled through the crowd. A few of the blasters lowered. "Do you know her?"

"And do you?"

"She's my foundling. I'm her caretaker." The whiphid narrowed its eyes.

"Prove it." Din loosened his grip on his weapon, but he didn't drop it.

"She has bright eyes and dark hair. She was sold to Jabba by her real father and grew attached to Boba Fett." Silence filled the dark hallway. The whiphid lowered his blaster, and the rest followed suit.

"She is not here." Din felt pricks along his skin, his heart sinking. "She has not visited us for a while."

There's still one more place if it's true.

"How do I know you aren't lying?" Din tilted his head, staring at the whiphid.

"Search for yourself." The whiphid moved out of the way, parting the crowd. Din stepped forward to walk out. "I will escort you."

They stared at one another for a moment, but Din nodded towards the staircase at the end of the hall. They both began to walk, the whiphid at his side.

"A Mandalorian. I suppose you're with the Guild?" Din remained silent. "I was once with the Guild as well. Perhaps you recognize the name J'Quille?"

"It's familiar." They began to descend the stairs, and Din stared straight ahead. "How do you know Lili? How long have you been here?"

"Decades." Din turned to look at him. "We remained in the lowest levels of the dungeons for years. After the slaying of Jabba, we claimed what was rightfully ours once more. I, of course, did not join until after Jabba's demise."

"You weren't here three years ago." J'Quille's squinted gaze studied the armor for a few long moments.

"But we were. I thought I recognized you. Your armor is . . . different." They entered the empty throne room. It was cleaner than it had been years ago. "We did not attack. We recognized the kind slave girl from the age of the Empire, when she returned to this sacred place."

Din peered into the rancor pit, seeing that the skeleton had been removed.

"When she returned to us, we welcomed her home. We even offered her to join our Order, but she declined. She would meditate with us, however."

"So, where did she go?"

"She told us it was too dangerous to stay in the Dune Sea any longer. She knew someone was following her."

Din sighed, giving the room a one-over once more.

"Thank you. I'll be leaving now." Din turned, walking away to the staircase with J'Quille following after him.

"You are free to return to this place, so you wish. We will offer you hospitality and protection."

"Don't need it."

What the hell did she get herself into? Frustration was growing as Din stormed up the stairs to make his way through the palace, through the dark hallway with a few of the monks watching after. The sunlight was strangely comforting as he went back outside, boarded his bike, and headed back to Mos Eisley.

He thought of the safehouse Peli had mentioned the entire journey back to town. When it had come into view, he stopped at the very edge to check his tracking fob again. It was still dead silent.

Where did you go? What trouble are you into now? He turned to his armor, clicking a few buttons on his arm there. In his helmet, the image of Mos Eisley began to digitize with multiple heat signatures wandering about.

He waited a few moments, but he could find no figures that he was searching for. He sighed, going back into town and returning the bike to the depot. He walked back into town, hoping he could return to the cantina to find the droid.

As he retraced the path he had taken earlier that day, he caught sight of the droid briefly a block from the cantina. Its old model was distinguishable in the town as it zipped west of him.

All ideas of tracking fobs were forgotten – he was going to follow this droid to find out the truth.

He stayed a fair distance from the droid, who seemed to know that someone was following it, as its head turned every few feet and Din had to duck and hide. He followed the droid for nearly ten minutes before he realized the droid was roaming in circles, leading him through various alleyways, sudden turns, and random direction changes.

It's smarter than I thought. As they rounded the corner to the cantina, Din stopped completely, watching the droid from afar before it turned in the same direction as before. All Din would have to do was wait for the droid to come back around once more.

Sure enough, the droid came zipping past a few minutes later and as he passed, Din tossed a tracker at him, watching as it stuck to the droid's leg. The droid did another lap and Din went to the cantina alleyway as he connected his armor to the tracking pod.

Like before, the droid made a winding path around the city for the next few minutes, clearly intending to drive off anyone who wanted to follow and disorientate anyone who meant harm. Finally, the droid stopped just a block away from the cantina.

The building was within seeing distance, unassuming and average. The dot moved slightly closer within the safehouse before joining a heat signature within the cellar of the place.

The safehouse. Din walked forward quickly, scouting out the building as he came closer. The old building was quiet and dark inside as he rounded the stone building, but found that the cellar doors had been dusted off. The tracking pod was just a few feet away.

Din opened the cellar doors quietly and saw footsteps – and droid marks – in the dust. The light from above reached the bottom of the stairs, and from within, there was no noise. It was silent.

Din removed his rifle from his back and held it in front of him, taking the first step down.

As his foot hit the third step, there was a very small, barely noticeable sound from within the dark cellar. He paused, but there were no other sounds that followed.

He reached the ground level of the cellar, which wasn't as dark as he'd thought. As he adjusted to the darkness, he noticed that small, rectangular windows allowed filtered light into the room.

It was a plain, large cellar with only a few pieces of covered furniture within. It was obvious the cellar of the safehouse hadn't been touched for a long time.

There were fresh footsteps in the dust and sand, with droid marks. He followed the tracks further into the cellar with his hands still on the rifle.

A beep came from the end of the tracks where the droid remained, looking closely at Din. They stared at each other for a few moments, before the droid moved back a few feet with weak beeps.

Just as Din's sensors picked up motion from behind, a very strong blow came to Din's back, knocking him onto his front as the wind was knocked from him. The rifle was kicked from his hands as an arm came around his neck and someone jumped onto his back.

Din threw his head back and the sound of metal on metal rang throughout the cellar as his assailant fell back, removing the pressure from his neck.

Din picked himself up and turned, seeing the Ubese scrambling to stand back up.

"No," the Ubese said as the droid began to move towards Din. "This is our fight."

The Ubese threw the next hit, which landed into the meat of his arm. As the points on the Ubese's gloves dug into his flesh and drew blood, Din landed a hard kick to their stomach, causing him to fall to the ground.

The Ubese plucked the staff from its back and held it out as Din pulled out his blaster. Neither spoke as they circled each other, willing the other to make the first move. Like before, it was the Ubese who charged. In a mess of angry hits and blocks, the two made their way across the cellar in a dangerous game until the Ubese had the upper hand once more with his staff against Din's neck as he pulled up. Din grabbed onto the staff and heaved as hard as he could, surprised to find the Ubese so light as it flew over his shoulder and landed on his back.

Din quickly moved to pin down the Ubese, who struggled against him as he pressed his blaster to the helmet.

"Where the hell is Lili?" For a moment, the Ubese stopped struggling and fell silent. He could feel the gaze from behind the helmet. "Answer me."

A quick hit thrust the blaster from his hand and the Ubese's leg caught him, tipping him onto his back. The Ubese stood back up, picked up the blaster, and pressed it to his helmet with his knees on Din's wrists.

"Why don't you kill me and find out yourself?" he asked, and rage coursed through Din as he sat up quickly, knocking the Ubese back. As he rolled back, Din caught his foot as he stood and the Ubese fell to the ground with a hard knock on the helmet.

As the Ubese stood once more, he managed to hit Din's stomach once more before he was thrown into a wall and fell still, the blaster free from their grip.

The first thing Din did was take his blaster back and place it into its holster. Then, he lowered the Ubese – who was still unmoving – and reached under the helmet. With quick speed, it pulled him forward into the wall before rolling away. Din caught his leg again.

"Tell me what you did with her!" The Ubese reached a hand towards him, but Din wasted no time in flipping them. The response was a harsh kick to the shins and Din fell to his knees a few feet from the Ubese, who removed a knife from their belt as they stood.

The Ubese charged and Din stood, grabbing onto his arms. He felt the Ubese using all his strength to move towards him, the knife aimed at his shoulder, and could feel the hands shaking. Within moments, the knife had fallen from the Ubese's grip and Din slung them against the wall with all his strength and anger.

Sparks flew and Din took a few steps back as they fell to the ground loudly, falling still once more. Din removed his blaster from his holster and pointed it at the Ubese, who was beginning to stir. A large crack was down his helmet.

"Did you kill her?" The Ubese slowly lifted their hands and sloppily removed the remains of the helmet, still faced away. Next, they pried off their gloves as if completely unaware he was there. "Tell me."

The helmet was long forgotten and Din angrily stalked to the Ubese, who was picking himself off the floor to stand once more. Din was just a few yards away when he felt as if he was melting into the floor, like his legs had decided on their own to fall still in his vulnerability. As if he knew what was going to happen.

He noticed the Ubese had a hand facing him, slightly shaking with bruising, bloody knuckles.

"Did you hurt her?" The Ubese turned and Din was able to lay eyes on their face for the first time.

But it wasn't the first time. Despite the blood and bruising, it was a face he recognized — a face he knew well.

It wasn't an Ubese bounty hunter like he'd thought. It wasn't a man at all. There was no mistaking those very angry, tear-filled blue eyes anywhere.

It was her.