AN/ Time to say goodbye to the Ohnakas :(

Chapter 5: Bets and Bargaining

It had been three hours since they had begun playing both Jango and Hondo were out and the number of tables had shrunk from five to three. The two sat at one of the vacated tables facing the active ones, drink in hand.

"So are you ready to talk business, my friend?" Hondo's question roused a sigh and for a moment they were still. Jango wasn't in the mood to talk but it would probably be the only time he could do so without Ben worrying or asking for details.

He watched as she deftly swirled the alcohol in her glass face carefully contemplative. Then taking a sip she fanned out her cards on the table smiling. The four pirates groaned in defeat and reluctantly forked over the credits they owed. She glanced over her shoulder at him brow raised in question. He shook his head gesturing for her to keep on. Then turned back to the pirate.

"I suppose now will do," he answered evenly.

"Good, good. We can start with the cargo."

"Which cargo, would that be?" Hondo's brows raise.

"Well, I'm not referring to yourself, the small amount of food and spice. For sure."

"I am not interested in the spice, and I am certain the food is near unpalatable. We have had our fill of it, though Ben and I will trade our portion for better rations from you and yours."

"Now wait just a moment. I did not say we were interested in it." At this Jango gives him a blank look, calling his bluff.

"Fine we get the spice and we'll say your room and board costs are covered by the foodstuffs. Now, the ship itself?"

"Burn it. Scrap it. Blow it up. So long as Ben and I never have to set foot on that filthy place again. We ask only that our portion of the ship credits count as our currying fee and medical costs."

Hondo feigns surprise, pretending to contemplate this unexpected declaration. A ship is an expensive piece of equipment and a newly freed slave with nothing but his name could use something such as this. No matter where it came from or how it was acquired.

"You don't want the ship? Or even the money from its sale? I am aghast my friend."

"She won't want it." Jango glanced over at Ben. She had spent that time stripping Republic Credits off Captain Dola and the entire crew. The pirates laughed too deep in their cups to care, or perhaps they were just too impressed with her to care.

Jango had folded when the pirates had talked of betting clothing over credits. He wondered if he and Ben would have enough for a ship when they were done.

Hondo sighed. "Well, at least let us bargain a little more. What should be done with the slaver scum."

"Strand them, space them. I don't care, so long as she and I never have to see either of them again." Hondo's smile was sharp.

"That can be arranged my friend. After all a ship and several crates of spice is a mighty fine payment for all the trouble of ferrying you to Navarro."

"Navarro?"

"It's the closest Bountyhunting Guild hub. Unless you were wanting to be let off somewhere else?"

"No. That works just fine with me." With that Hondo wandered off to refill his cup, and Jango began to plan.

Taking out a piece of flimsy, he calculated and recalculated the amount they had to spend on a ship versus the cost of fuel and food. Not knowing exactly what their plan was frustrated him. The variables spun around and around in his head.

Depending on where they were, it could potentially be two or three weeks to Navarro. Then there was Ben to consider. She might have family on the other side of the galaxy for all he knew right now. When she had talked of her family, all she had mentioned was her Buir, but surely her clan was more extensive than that.

For the moment, he worked as if they would be going there. Naturally, that was where Viszla would be. Perhaps they could lay low on his Concord Dawn in the remains of the Fett Farm. The house would be gone. The last time he'd seen his childhood home, it was in flames, but the fallout cellar would be intact. As it was under the barn. Then again, he really didn't want to go back there if they didn't have to. It was full of too much history for him to be genuinely comfortable there.

A cry of dismay sounded from the table, along with Ben's tinkling laughter. Another one bit the dust, it seemed.

Jango put that idea to the side for now and walked back over to the table. Of the thirty-member crew, only three remained now. Everyone else had either folded, leaving with what little they had left, or they had lost it all to Ben.

He wondered if they cared about the Republic credits the way they were losing them or if they just couldn't hold their drink.

"What's the count?" At his inquiry, Ben looked up a smug grin on her face

"18,000"

He scoffed at her reply. It was more than enough to secure supplies and a ship, even rented. It had been twelve years since his Buir had been a member of the Guild, but they should still let him open an account on his reputation. They would need credits.

"Only you, Ben, would be able to swindle professional swindlers."

"Now, now, my dear, it's not swindling to be underestimated. Though I will admit playing intoxicated opponents does take the fun out of it. If only a little."

"Stop your flirting and play the game." The weequay who interrupted them looked more amused than anything else. This contrasted with Ben's scowl.

"I'm not flirting." a blush crawled up her cheeks.

"And tookas can fly. In or out girly."

"In."

"Then sit back down." Ben turned back to him. Jango swallowed as she smiled.

"Can we talk later? We're going to need everything we can get."

"Yeah, that works. I'll talk to the Captain about the slaver's ship in the meantime."

"Sounds good to me." He reached out and awkwardly patted her shoulder before fleeing out the door. He looked back to see an incredulous look on her face as the conscious pirates howled in laughter. He felt his face go hot, and he fled down the hall.

Obi-wan didn't know what to make of that. Jango hadn't been one to initiate contact before. She put the new cards in her hand in the proper order, mulling it over. Even with how brief the contact was, she could still feel the weight of his hand. She wondered if they would have been warm. She blushed and turned back towards the game.

"Done mooning over your boyfriend?" Rona crowed.

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Whatever, label it, don't label it. You do, you little one." The other female, Aze, added dismissively.

"Can we focus on me winning this game?"

"So certain." Rona drew her cards.

An hour later, Obi-wan was lead to a small berth in the guest quarters section of the ship, winnings in tow. She was glad her lessons with Quinlan had paid off. The Shadow in training had insisted that learning how to read the emotions of others at a sabacc table wasn't cheating. It was the same as reading any other tell. Bant and Garen hadn't agreed, but then again, they had never been able to master the trick.

It was a simple room with a full-sized bed pushed into one corner, a bolted-down desk, and a wardrobe filling the majority of the remaining space. She took a breath and walked over to the bed, stripping off the black skirt as she went. This left her only in the skin-tight leggings underneath. She placed her leg on the bed to better reach her new thigh holster. She placed the credit chit in the pouch attached to it right next to the long dagger she had been gifted. The number of knives Dola had insisted on was absolutely mind-boggling, but she couldn't refuse them. Insulting the pirate captain was the last thing she wanted to do, considering how reliant she and Jango were on her good humor at the moment.

She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't hear the door open. She did hear the strangled gasp behind her. She whirled around, drawing the dagger. Jango and Hondo stood in the doorway. Jango's tan cheeks were bright red, and he was looking pointedly at the ceiling. Hondo was looking pleased with himself again.

"I hope you enjoy the accommodations, my friends. Mother thought you would." With that, he laughed and walked down the hall.

"Um, could you put the skirt back on? Please." His voice was strained. Obi-wan furrowed her brows.

"Sure, if you want." He turned around as she picked it up.

When the skirt was back in place, Obi-wan smoothed its lines and took a seat on the bed. Jango took the desk chair. Even with the back of the chair pushed against the wardrobe, their knees almost touched.

"Dola is selling the slave ship for scrap. She has agreed that since we did most of the work in subduing the slavers, we are entitled to 60 percent of the profit. She estimates this to be at least 10,000 Republic credits."

"That's great! We should have enough for a ship."

"Hopefully, one with two berths." He muttered.

"Space should be secondary to food, Jango." She did her best to sound blasė, but it sounded flat even to her.

He looked up, surprised as if she shouldn't have been able to hear that. He colored again.

"Ni ceta (I'm sorry; literally I kneel), Ben. I didn't mean it that way."

"I get it. Having your own space after so long is important, Jango."

"No, that was me being an ass."

Obi-wan looked away, unable to keep meeting his pleading eyes.

"What kind of ship were you thinking?"

"Don't think we're done with this, Ben. I'm not going to disregard your feelings just because you want to ignore them."

"I was thinking the new YT-1300, but we may not have the credits for it."

"No, while we could pilot it together, it's a little bigger than we need."

"What would you suggest then."

"We could rent until we find the best fit."

"Jango, you know I still have to find my Buir, right. He needs me. He's probably worried sick." His face fell at the reminder, and Obi-wan felt the stirrings of guilt at pulling at her

"Oh, yeah." At his dark tone, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on in his head. A part of her wished that they could be a team for just a little longer.

However, it still surprised her when she found herself saying, "After we find your armor, of course."

Jango looked up, lips parted, his dark eyes wide. His smile was the sun breaking through the clouds.

"Deal."

That night was awkward. Obi-wan had insisted that they share the bed, as they both hadn't had a proper bed in so long. Jango had settled himself against the wall as far from her as he could get, insisting that he wanted to give her space. Despite the initial discomfort, they both found sleep as soon as they stopped moving.

The spider chittered angrily as it moved, still looking for her. It stomped around, smashing asteroids in its fit of anger.

After what seemed like a small eternity, it calmed, turning towards a small, entirely blue planet, Pantora.

It chittered with glee as it began to wrap the planet in black spider silk.

The hunger she sensed from it made her shiver. She moved to turn away from the spider, and suddenly she found herself falling.

She landed with a smack on the dusty ground and sat up. She was on Mandalore again.

Master Jinn was arguing with Satine. She couldn't make out any of the words at first. Then moving closer to the pair, they came through.

"Why aren't you looking for her?! She's been gone for weeks!"

"Obi-wan is in tune with the Force, she will be alright, and we will find her at the time it deems we should"

"Kry-stad are demagolka'e. They will not wait for your Force to act. They will kill her or worse, Master Jedi." She spit the words as if they were a curse.

Obi-wan sucked in a breath.

"Duchess, you shouldn't worry yourself, so. You'll make yourself sick."

"My friend is missing you di'kut, and you're not doing anything!"

Obi-wan turned to get away from the conversation. She couldn't face her Master's apathy any longer.

She fell again.

She was in the middle of a firefight. The Young surrounded her in one moment. The next, she was surrounded by white and gold armor. She found her saber had been returned; she deflected bolt after bolt at the Elders, or were they battle droids? Everything was flickering between the two realities faster and faster. She couldn't focus. A bolt made its way under her guard.

Hands grabbed her.

"Ben!" She gasped and tried to fight. "Ben, wake up" She swung out with her arms.

Ben smacked Jango across the face.

"Kriff," He cried out, holding his nose as his eyes began to sting with tears. She was awake now. Thank the Ka'ra.

"Oh, Force. I'm so sorry, here let me see that." He moved his hands, nose pulsing with each thrum of his heart.

"Verd'ika, you didn't tell me you packed a punch like that."

"All warfare is dependent upon secrecy, my dear." At that, he laughed, then groaned as a bolt of pain shot out from his nose.

"I'll go get some ice for your nose. Hold on."

Ben rushed out the door, racing down the hall to the ice machine. He usually felt like it was a waste of space on a ship. Its inclusion was a holdover from fancier Core world ships. In this instance, he was relieved it was there.

Ben came back with a rag and a cup of ice.

"I wasn't sure of how much you would need, so I filled the whole thing."

"Ben, it's fine." She frowned at him until he took the offered ice and put some in the rag.

"Put it on your nose di'kut (idiot)."

He started and chuckled at that. "Where the harán (hell) did you learn that, Verd'ika?" Ben looked a little lost for a moment.

"I think Satine said it."

"Satine?"

"My friend, the one who was teaching me Mando'a."

"Well, you certainly got the context right."

"You deserved it."

"The smack?" He grinned up at her.

"Stop being obtuse, the insult and the ice." She huffed a little, sitting back against the bulkhead. She took some deep breaths and swallowed hard.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"What?"

"Whatever was making you fight in your sleep."

"Not really, but I suppose I should."

"You don't have to if you don't want to, Ben." She looked down at her hands for a moment as if contemplating what she was going to do. He felt the sudden urge to take her hands in his, but he didn't want to be smacked a second time. She began speaking in a careful tone.

"There was a monstrous spider, and it was eating planets. It seemed so angry, Jango." She shuttered at the memory of it."Angry and hungry, and it was trying to find me even as it wrapped another planet in its black silk."

Jango felt a bolt of unease shoot down his spine. He remembered Jas'Buir's lessons on the dar'jetti of the past. The ability to destroy planets wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. The fact that Ben was seeing something similar if only in a dream, was unsettling.

"But that's not what had me upset or fighting. One moment I was looking at the spider, and the next, I watched my Buir and my friend rage at each other. Satine wanted to look for me."

Ben trailed off, looking lost for a moment.

"What did your Buir want, Ben?" He dreaded the answer as tears filled her eyes.

"Um… he insisted that I'd be fine on my own and that Satine shouldn't worry about me."

Kriff. He hoped this was only a nightmare. If it was a Manda vision, then he was going to do more than punch the shabuir.

"Was that all Verd'ika?" His tone was careful. He didn't want her to clam up now that she was actually talking about what was bothering her.

"No, I...I was back on Melidaan fighting the Elders, and then I was surrounded by men in white and gold armor fighting droids. It kinda reminded me of Kry'stad's armor, but the lines were different. Everything kept flickering back and forth, but the plasma bolts kept flying my way. I tried to deflect them, but one got under my guard. Next thing I knew, I was smacking you across the face."

Jango was silent for a moment. Had she used a bes'kad of beskar or cortosis in her dream? Deflecting blaster bolts even in a dream was pretty impressive. He wondered if she could do it awake, but that was for another time. Right now, she needed comfort, not questions.

"What do you need, Ben" he kept his tone even and low. She swallowed and looked up at him. She looked so lost and tired. Kriff that dar'buir for giving her that expression.

"Just some quiet so I can process this, and some flimsy. I used to have a dream journal when I was little."

"Ok. Do you want me to leave?"

"Could you stay?"

"Of course." He settled down next to Ben on the bed as she folded her legs under her, arms laying on her knees.

"Jango?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for listening to my dream. No one's done that for a long time." At that, he felt his throat go tight. He didn't know what to say to that.

It took them five days to make it to Navarro. Jango had insisted that the Bounty Hunter's Guild would accept them as amateur bounty hunters. The standard practice of pairing new applicants with more experienced hunters, or beroya (bounty hunter), would be waived. Due in part to the training he received under his father. His expression had been fond as he recounted his Verd'goten. Jaster had him track down a bounty on his own, and while it had been considered easy. The pride he felt at its completion was still evident in the Force around him.

Obi-wan didn't dream of the spider again after the first night, though dream she did. Thinking back to it still made her stomach churn.

She still didn't know what had possessed her that first night to talk so openly about the vision with Jango. Master Jinn had told her that they had no bearing on the present. That she should focus on the here and now. Master Yoda had advised her that always in motion the future is. Focus on what you are doing, not what you could do, one should. Eventually, she just stopped talking about them, not that they went away.

When at the Temple, she sometimes still wrote in her dream journal. Bant had gifted it to her on her 13th life day. It had been more than a year since she had spent a significant amount of time in the Temple, and most of her dreams occurred on missions anyway. She wondered how thick the dust would be in on it when she returned to her quarters.

She sighed and turned to look at their temporary quarters one last time. Tomorrow they will be in new quarters. Maybe one day she would be able to stay somewhere more than a couple of weeks, but not now. Quietly to herself, she admitted maybe never.

She turned and walked away.

Captain Dola and Hondo stood on the ramp of their flagship, the Tigermoth. It had taken both of them an hour to say goodbye and convince them that, yes, they actually wanted off on Navarro.

"Goodbye, my friends, don't be strangers, and send me an invitation when your wedding is imminent." Obi-wan blushed, and Jango huffed, looking anywhere but at her.

"Do not be a stranger, little one," Dola whispered into her hug. "You will always have a place here if you need it."

With that, the two strode down the ramp onto the streets of Navarro. Navarro was a volcanic planet covered in black sand. It was very different from the pale tan sand of Mandalore or the spongy grass in the Temple. Still, Obi-wan felt as if they were meant to be there. As she and Jango walked down the streets, the Force seemed to hum in anticipation. They approached the Bounty Hunting guild's office and stepped inside.

AN/ Sneak Peak

"We're going after a runaway Princess from Alderaan."

"What?" Obi-wan shook her head, coming out of her thoughts at Jango's voice.

"The puck is for a runaway Alderanian Princess."

"Breha?!"

"You've heard of her?"