When we landed on the planet of Nevarro, I was surprised to see a lot had changed since I was last here. I squinted through the haze of the desert air and noticed that there was a buoyancy about the people that hadn't previously existed. They seemed to be moving throughout the town without fear strewn across their faces. Though the Empire and Death Stars were destroyed years before this, I subconsciously felt an essence of them still in the air. The scenery was mostly different—carts planted in areas to create a flow for the market, buildings renovated and painted beautiful, vibrant colors—but the slaughter I witnessed could never be erased from this place. I fiddled with a coin between my fingers, helping ease some of the anxiety within me, and paced the cockpit.
The Mandalorian gathered his things and put the child in his bag by his side. He left me there, anxiously debating on whether or not I should exit the ship. I watched through the cockpit window as he greeted two others outside, who were quite relaxed about him being here, and I decided to join him below.
The woman eyed me suspiciously and stiffened her stance. When the Mandalorian turned and saw it was me, he put his hand up to calm her.
"This is the, erm, person I'm traveling with," he said, leaving it at that. She exchanged looks with the man beside her, waiting for further introduction from the Mandalorian.
I jumped off the ramp—the lever too broken to lower it further than a few remaining feet—and cleared my throat, giving them a shy wave. "I'm Quinn."
The woman nodded and shook my hand. "Cara. This is Greef," she said, introducing the man next to her. I gave him a tight smile and stood uncomfortably beside the Mandalorian. His ears perked at my introduction, realizing he'd been traveling with someone whose identity was still largely unknown—particularly my name. He began chatting with the two new government officials, discussing something important in hushed voices. I wandered away to give them a bit of privacy and tried to reassure myself, rather unsuccessfully, that this planet was not the Nevarro I remembered. Moments later, the Mandalorian approached me.
"I need to take care of some things," I narrowed my eyes, suspecting I wasn't included in these plans, but waited for him to elaborate. "Stay here with the kid."
"I don't think so," I responded harshly. "I'm going with you."
"No," he said, trying to hand over the child, who's tiny green arms were now reaching for Quinn. He wasn't comfortable traveling with him. If any Imps witnessed the child while the Mandalorian was on their territory, it likely wouldn't end well. To convince Quinn to stay back and babysit—without calling it that directly—he came up with an idea. "It's safer if you stay here."
I looked between him and the kid, shaking my head, my anxiety crawling into my throat. "This place gives me the creeps."
"It's not what you remember. Nevarro has changed. Besides," he said, the child impatiently cooing and reaching for me, bouncing a bit within the Mandalorian's grip. "We're going to destroy an old Imperial base."
I took the child from the Mandalorian and tucked him in my arm, accepting the terms. To remain subtle, I covered his face with the rucksack he wore, his big eyes the only visible area on his face. The Mandalorian watched the familiar expression he so often recognized as fear spread across my face as I began to understand the situation. The thought of putting myself in a position where I could be exposed to old Empire war lords—if it were true that they were back—made it difficult to control my anxiety. I looked over at Cara and Greef self-consciously before walking into town to find a place to wait for them to return.
"You trust her?" Cara asked him, watching Quinn's back as she blended into the crowd. The Mandalorian shrugged one shoulder subtly.
"I trust that if she wanted to hurt him, she would have tried already," he responded. Beside him, Cara gave him a look that said, fair enough. Though he didn't necessarily get the sense Quinn had an alternative motive, he still couldn't trust her fully and continued to have one eye on her at all times. Her behavior until that point had been relatively neutral. She wasn't fickle around the child, didn't ever have that same darkness etched in her eye he's seen in others when they look at the kid—of course, if she did, he wouldn't have asked her to join him. Yet somehow, in the short time Quinn and the child had spent together, something between them seemed to have grown. He remained silent regarding her abilities, deciding to respect her privacy. He knew he was one of likely only a few people to know her secret, and that she intended to try and keep it that way. However, there were murky details that stuck to the back of his mind like thick tar that he still wasn't comfortable with, like why she needed to get off of Tatooine so quickly, in addition to how she had managed to escape the bound around her wrists—though he mostly shrugged this off and told himself he must have tied it incorrectly.
"Still, you didn't even know her name, Mando," Cara said, her hands on her hips as she pointed out the obvious. She felt uneasy with how fast Quinn disappeared from her sight. "If you're going to just give her the kid, you should probably know who to ask for if she ever vanishes with him."
The Mandalorian watched Quinn's back for a second longer and marinated in Cara's words. Perhaps she was right. He reminded himself, however, that he set boundaries with Quinn when she agreed to travel with him. He wouldn't ask questions, as long as she agreed to help him with his quest and protect the child. But maybe it was unfair to both of them if they worked together in secrecy. How long could that really go on for, anyway? Regardless, if Quinn decided she trusted him with the knowledge of her abilities—the image of her saving him and the child from the Krykna still fresh in his mind—he felt he could trust her with the kid, at least in a place like Nevarro that so obviously disturbed her still. And, he was a bounty hunter, after all. If suddenly Quinn managed to disappear with the child, he felt he had multiple advantages on her, so by the time they were prepared to leave for the Imperial base, the Mandalorian was feeling quite satisfied with his odds in the situation.