Vau kicked himself for letting Mird have his head to hunt while he searched the abandoned bunker. He rolled his eyes at the female voice that hailed him.

"You might as well come out now. I'm not above coming in to get you and I'm already more than pissed enough to forget every mandate I was ever indoctrinated with."

The response he gave her was a dismissive snort. His back was pressed up against the corner. He could see a vague outline of the woman's shape in the light coming from the open doorway of the command hutch.

"I think you and I both know that if you thought you could take me you would have by now."

He wondered if he could make the egress before she got a bead on him. Wondered what data she'd mined going left where he'd gone right. Because he'd found sweet fuck all.

Across the corridor from him the figure sniffed.

"Buddy, if you think that-"

He broke, his Verp already coming up and aiming for her.

He was shocked when she launched at him. Just as shocked as she appeared when the lightsaber that came to life in her hand just skidded across his chest plate. He reared forward, head-butting her, as her momentum carried her into his body mass. His hand came up, forcing the one holding her sword grip over their heads. He grunted with the pain as she fired a small blaster point-blank into his flank.

N'Dara grunted in return as his weight came down heavy on her.

She struggled, trying to draw enough breath to recenter her attack. He was probably twice as heavy as she was and completely encased in the metal skin that had proved to be impermeable thus far. She abandoned the holdout blaster, tossing it out of his reach, and got her fingers around his helmet's strap. See him block a bolt without that. His hand was close to breaking her fingers beneath his grip, her wrist bent painfully as he tried to force her lightsaber free.

"Traitor!" she hissed. "You abandon your brothers and then come to mine intel for the Empire!?"

"What!?"

He was shocked enough to let her get the upper hand for just moments.
As his buy'ce came free she recoiled from him.

"What the hell? Where did you get that armor?"

The lightsaber came up under his chin.

"It's mine and it's been mine for a good long while, jetii."

"Lies. I know what Mark II costs a civilian."

"It's beskar," Vau intoned, drawing the syllables over his larynx. "Only substance known to man that can block your fancy light stick, lady."

She clearly didn't believe him.

"Have you never met a Mandalorian in armor before?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Thousands of them. And you are not he," she hissed.

"Lower your sword."

"Where did you get it?"

"I'm not a clone," he told her. "I'm one of the cuy'val dar. Do you know what that means?"

She eyed him warily. Shook her head.

"The training sergeants. From Kamino. I'm looking for a man who was left behind. Shut off the laser show and I'll get off of you."

She complied, using a boost from the force to brace her feet and shooting away from him. Moved to a crouch between him and his buy'ce.

"Why are you wearing their armor?"

"Oh. For aaray's sake. This is me. Mine. I can't help it that a kriffing decade after I suggested white was a bad idea they went with the matte black. As you can tell, I'm no clone commando. Who the hell are you and why aren't you dead?"

That pissed her off.

"I'm not dead, traitor, because I was already taken when the order came down. You're responsible for these clones? You helped make them?"

She spit at him.

He wiped his cheek, grimaced at her. "You are making things harder on yourself," he promised.

"Who are you looking for?"

"RC-1207. Sev. His name is Sev and he was overwhelmed when Vos and Yoda pulled out. I have reason to believe he was taken alive. Maybe."

She regarded him carefully. "I haven't ever worked with him. I know a Sev… Knew a Sev. But… not yours."

He nodded. "There's a fair many of them going by that designation. This one's mine and I aim to find him."

"Then why are you stealing for the Empire?"

"I'm not," he groaned. Jesu. Could she be any more thickheaded? No wonder nobody had sent an assassination squad after her. She'd argue them to death. "I'm just trying to access the vid-feed from that night. I want to see the designations of the unit that captured him."

He wanted to see if Sev had fought to the death—which was what he'd trained him to do.

His hand came up to his gut and pain flashed over his face.

"Why only one when our men are held in POW camps on hundreds of worlds?"

"I didn't know. I need this one, then I'll help you free every man you can point me at."

She regarded him carefully. Swallowed. "There were twelve taken at the same time I was. Start there."

"How did you get free when they didn't?"

"I don't know that they didn't. I need that vid-feed, same as you."

"How did you get free?" he asked again. "Do you know where you were held? Can you get back in?"

"I wasn't taken to the prison complex. There were plans to ransom me back to the Republic, before the Republic betrayed us all."

"Yeah, you can thank ol' Jango for that. He sure as hell knew how to play the long game, didn't he?"

He didn't expect her to press her lips together into a hard line. Didn't expect the way emotions crashed over her expression.

"Nothing personal, jetii," he sneered. He pronounced it the Mando way… JAY-teee… but drawn out so that every bit of his inherited and hard-won arrogance colored the appellation.

"When your kind is exterminated while you're held in a cage and lots are thrown for who gets to use you first… then you can talk to me of long games and personal vendettas."

"Shab. I didn't… I wasn't thinking…"

"I hate you," she told him.

He held his hands wide to his sides. "Fair. Help me, though." He nodded through the doorway behind her. "If we're both looking for the same thing, there's no reason for us to still be standing here arguing philosophy and grievances."

She lowered the gun back into her holster. Reached for his helmet.

"Throw me your comm'link."

"I will not."

"Then how do I know you're not going to call reinforcements down and sell me to your new Empire?"

"Honey. That's not my Empire, not my Emperor. Your people overstepped and Jango played all of us to pay you back for Galidraan. But that man? He's just a politician playing the long game, too. I don't know if he recruited Jango or Jango was the one to put him in place for this, but he's a threat just as big as your beloved Republic was."