Zaalbar:

"/Do not touch her/"

The Czerka slaver raised an eyebrow as he turned to my brother. "You should tighten the leash on your pet there, Chuundar."

"/By Bacca, I'll tear your throats out/" I warned.

"Well, I think we lucked out here," one slaver said to the other. "Young, beautiful and look at that coloring."

"Speak for yourself," his friend grumbled. "She didn't hit you with a vibroblade."

"It's just a flesh wound, weakling," the man scoffed. "I'll admit, she looks a bit young for my tastes, but maybe I'll keep her for myself. You know, raise her how I like them."

"/You'll do no such thing/" I roared. As I lunged towards the humans, the collar bit into my neck. The coward stepped out of my reach.

"What did I tell you, Chuundar?" he demanded.

My brother raised a hand. "/Easy, friends/" he said. "/Why all the fuss over an alien girl, Zaalbar/"

"/That child is part of my honor family/" I growled.

"/But Zaalbar/" Chuundar chided. "/You have no honor. Have you forgotten that you're nothing but a madclaw/"

"/She is my cub/" I snarled. "/My child. More flesh to me than you. I will not sit and watch slavers take her./"

Chuundar smirked. "/Dear brother, you are not in a position to decide these things./"

"/Says the fool who's a Czerka puppet/" I barked. "/My honor lies in her safety. Harm her and I'll destroy you, weapons, claws or blood./"

"/I am no puppet./" Chuundar smirked over clenched teeth. "/Leave the alien alone./"

"You can't demand that," the Czerka man said. "I found and apprehended her."

"/Any resource found in this village belongs to the Chieftain/" Chuundar replied. "/Me. Do you wish to steal from me/"

"If she belongs to the Chieftain, then she belongs to the Chieftain." The man sneered. "But I expect a finder's fee."

"/You found nothing/" Chuundar said. "/Zaalbar found her and she came for Zaalbar. You try my patience./"

"Forget it," the injured man reasoned. "It's not worth it. We don't even know if she'll wake up."

"/What do you mean/" I demanded.

"Chuundar, are you really going to make us put up with this?" the slaver spat.

"/Answer my guest's question/" Chuundar said.

"Guest?" The slaver chuckled. "Whatever you say."

He straightened himself and cleared his throat dramatically. "Guest of Chuundar, our darts are designed for Wookiees. That girl there's a Twi'lek, not that you could actually pronounce the word, 'Twi'lek.' She's much smaller than your average Wookiee for one and for two, her anatomy's completely different. Maybe she'll wake up in five minutes, a couple hours, maybe she won't."

I gathered Mission's limp form into my arms. Her skin was warm and her breathing, while slow, was regular.

"/Your lives will be forfeit if she doesn't wake/" I promised.

"You know," the slaver commented. "You bastards looked much cuddlier when I couldn't understand a damn word that left your mouths."

"/Chuundar, get them out of here now or I will kill them/" I snarled.

"/Control yourself, reckless one/" Chuundar snapped. He took a pleasant face for his Czerka men. "/Gentlemen, as you can see, Zaalbar is a bit irritable right now. Would you excuse the two of us, so we could talk in private/"

"Yeah, I could use a smoke," the slaver muttered.

"I could use a medic," his friend complained. "If that's not too much trouble."

"Trouble enough to have me toss you into the Shadowlands," the other man cracked. "Come on, useless."

The injured man slung his arm over the other slaver's shoulders. Between the two of them they managed to get the injured one standing and then proceeded to half limp, half drag him out of the hut.

"/You seemed so adverse to foreigners all those years ago/" Chuundar murmured. "/What made you change your mind about this girl/"

"/It was never foreigners I was against, it was slavers/" I growled.

"/You always did see things in black and white, didn't you, brother/" Chuundar rumbled.

"/I have more important things to worry about right now/" I roared.

I pulled Mission in tightly against me, pressed her head against my heart. Not a whimper, not a scream, nothing. Make her comfortable. I shifted her frame in my arms as I sat, gave her enough room to breathe.

"/I would appreciate it if you'd lend her a blanket/" I said.

"/I'll send for one/" Chuundar replied. He stepped out of the hut and left me alone.

She was still alive. The thought did little to console me. I still wanted to kill those Czerka scum regardless of whether or not Mission would regain consciousness. She would regain consciousness. She had to.

I never wanted to return to Kashyyyk. My past was my humiliation, Rian had no right to drag me back to face anything and how dare she suck Mission into it? Let me burn, hate myself, be miserable; I was used to it. But hurt my child?

My selfish worth had been measured in the moment I stood by and watched them poison her.

Chuundar returned with a blanket and I forced myself to stop thinking. As soon as the rough material was in my hands, I wrapped Mission snugly and cradled her like a babe. All I needed to do was keep her close to me, keep her at ease.

As I held her, I felt a foreign hardness dig into my ribs. Along Mission's breastbone, it was too solid to be flesh. Whatever the child was holding, it must have been jabbing into her sternum. I pushed the blanket aside and patted down her vest. A handle and a blade.

"/What are you doing, Zaalbar/" Chuundar asked.

"/Checking her heartbeat/" I snapped.

"/Our healers know nothing about Twi'leks/" Chuundar rumbled. "/I would have called one if it were otherwise./"

"/Yet you did nothing to stop those slaving hounds from attacking her in the first place/" I said.

"/Zaalbar, I'm not trying to argue with you./" Chuundar sighed. "/I don't like the animosity between us. I'm trying to talk to you./"

"/Says the Wook who had me banished in the first place./" I bared my teeth. "/Why should I believe you, Master of Lies/"

"/Because I am Chieftain and I am trying to do what's best for my people/" Chuundar roared.

"/By betraying them to Czerka/" I demanded. "/Chuundar, are you blind/"

"/I know what I have done./" Chuundar stopped abruptly and took a calming breath. "/What I have done to the few enslaved Wookiees is reprehensible and for that I would gladly let you cut out my heart at judgment, but Czerka came to Kashyyyk, Zaalbar, we didn't invite them here./"

"/So we meekly submit and let them take our strongest, our brightest/" I growled.

"/They don't take our strongest/" Chuundar replied. "/Healthy, yes. But not our strongest. I oversee, let them take some so that the rest can thrive in peace. Would you rather we fight and all be slaughtered/"

"/Better to die free/" I insisted.

"/If that child in your arms dies, she will have died free/" Chuundar said. "/Is that the fate you wish on her/"

I didn't answer for a long time.