16.
"Race you to the waterfall?"
"What?" Zo pried her eyes away from the practice circle. Jacen was staring ahead; had he really said anything… She hadn't been listening to him, too focused on watching her sister's graceful movements. She and Nel hadn't sparred in weeks. They had barely spoken, not since Zo beat her. Her twin could be an incredibly sore loser when she wanted to be. But Zo still enjoyed watching her sister as her yellow lightsaber hissed through the air like focused sunbeams. In the sparring circle below, her twin sister was fighting both Bran and Pax. Nel wasn't afraid of her power, wasn't scared of the gifts granted her through the Force. She wielded them with confidence and grace. She was a true power to behold.
Jacen turned toward her, smiling in that way that made her insides turn to hot Hutt goo, and nudged her playfully with his shoulder. Stars, how long had he been talking to her? "I said, do you want to go practice at the waterfall, Padawan?"
"Just because the only surviving Jedi Master decided with her Force gifted wisdom to make a nerf-herder like you a Knight does not make the rest of us your Padawans," Zo said while tucking her arms into her robes in a very practiced Jedi movement.
"Is she the last Master?" Jacen's voice lost his boyish humor and grew heavy with a concern much older than his years. The thought that the future of their entire order, a thousand generations of wisdom and knowledge, rested on their shoulders weighed heavily on all of them.
Zo closed her eyes and let out a deep, exhausted breath. She hadn't been sleeping well. She couldn't remember a night where vivid dreams or nightmares hadn't waked her. Visions of an old man in black robes, his voice cold and full of dark promises, plagued her. Jacen was the only one she confided in about the visions. "I don't know...he says we are alone. All the Jedi have been wiped out while we've been hiding like rats in a sewer."
"I also had dreams before the trials-"
"These are more than dreams, Jace. It's like– I feel him trying to find a way into my mind."
"He isn't real. It's just your fear manifesting through the Force."
"Master Vatari has so much confidence in me to pass– what if I fail her? What if I'm not strong enough?" She turned to face him, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"You are stronger than you know. Let go of your fear. The Force is always with you." Jacen tucked her Padawan braid behind her right ear then trailed his thumb along her jaw. The simple touch made her shiver despite the warm light of the afternoon sun. She wanted to lean into his touch; instead, she batted his hand away, cheeks glowing almost as red as her hair and glancing warily around, making sure Master Vatari's back was still turned.
"You can't do that," she hissed instead, Force pushing him a few feet away, "they might see. Vatari might sense something…."
"I don't want to hide anymore-"
"I don't either," she whispered, "But I need to talk to Nel. I need to tell her about us. She has feelings for you." A heavy stone settled in her stomach as the thought of her sister. Nel's infatuation with Jacen had been evident to Zo for some time. "She knows I'm hiding things from her. I can sense her suspicion; her anger grows every day no matter what I say or don't say. Nel's so distant with me lately. She won't talk to me; she's shut me out completely…. she's pulling away-"
"Nel has obstacles to overcome before Master Vatari feels she is capable of facing the trials. Her anger, her ego-" Jacen turned and hooked his chin towards the jungle surrounding the compound. "Come with me. They'll be at this for hours. You need to practice. Master is expecting you to start the trials on the next rotation. That's three days from now in case you lost count, Zo Mara."
She turned towards him with a sigh. "I know exactly when the next rotation starts, Jacen Cendar."
He smiled again, "Good. Last one to the waterfall takes all the chores for a week." He dashed away from her, the trembling leaves of the kudzu and giant monstera plants the only visible sign of his trajectory.
"Poodoo." She grumbled before sprinting after him.
The stone cavern behind the waterfall was their secret sanctuary. A hidden place Zo found years prior when she needed a private place to clear her head and focus. Somewhere she told no one about, not even her sister. Not until ever-curious, sweet, friendly Jacen followed her winding trail through the jungle to this place.
The ancient Jedi altar carved into the rock wall, once forgotten and abandoned, now sat adorned with a collection of treasures she and Jacen collected from their time exploring the old temples and surrounding jungle: a shard of an old clay bowl, pieces of an archaic lightsaber, fragments of a scroll. They added spare robes, blankets, and pillows once their innocent training sessions became more intimate. Their childhood friendship gradually changed over the years into more. Love and attachment formed between them even though their Order forbade it. Then on the eve before Jacen entered the temple for his final trials, they crossed that last line. The unspoken fear between them that he might not return from facing the ancient Force guardians was more than they could bear.
Now they spent whatever time they could here in this secret place—sneaking out after dark or between lessons only to return to the temple before anyone noticed their absence. It was dangerous and thrilling and selfish, and they wouldn't- couldn't stop their feelings for each other.
Zo skidded to a halt on the flat wet stone floor behind the waterfall a heartbeat before Jacen. She beamed up at him, gloating over her win as he slid across the floor to a stop in front of her. "Have fun scrubbing the temple statues." She said as she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and prepared for their first combat exercise.
He grabbed her around the waist before she could slide into her forms and pulled her tight against his body. "You cheated."
"I did not." She tried pushing him away, but he held her tight, burying his face in her neck and murmuring about pitfalls, loose rocks, and sabotage. His lips were warm, trailing open mouth kisses along the V-neck of her robes. "You said we were going to practice." Her effort to break free of his grasp wavered when he sucked gently on the pulse in her neck.
"We will later." He replied, trailing his lips up her neck, then around her jaw, and finally to her mouth. His soft lips were warm and inviting as he nibbled and licked her bottom lip. Zo tangled her fingers in his shaggy blond hair, using the wavy strands to pull him closer as she opened her mouth to him. He didn't pull away until they were both burning for air. "I'm sorry…we shouldn't…." He mumbled against her lips. "This is a mistake-"
"I love you, Jacen." She said before he turned away from her. She felt his guilt, the burden of their secret romance weighing heavily on his conscience. "I love you. I don't care what the code says. The old ways are gone." Jacen sighed deeply as Zo stood on her toes to kiss his cheeks. "We can be Jedi, we can follow the light side, and we can be together. This," she placed her hand over his heart, " is not a mistake; the Force brought us together."
His thumbs rubbed circles across the back of her hands, his clover green eyes searched hers, "What if Master Vatari forbids us?"
"I will give it all up to be with you, '' she said, looking up at him. "I want a family; I want children someday. I want a future– with you, Jacen."
He let out a deep breath, and she felt relief wash over him. He was still conflicted. They both were. Being a Jedi was the only thing they knew how to be, adhering to the rules and guidelines laid out by the Jedi Masters that came before them. But they also couldn't ignore what they felt for each other. "We'll speak to her after your trials," he said quietly, "After you pass. We can show her that loving each other is not a path to the dark side." She nodded. They would face their fate together.
After Jacen led her through their practice session, they made love on their collection of blankets and pillows. One day, they told each other they would have a real bed, one they would share without the guilt of hiding their liaisons, where they could fall asleep and wake up in each other's arms.
For now, they settled for the cold stone floor and the soft blankets. It was slow and sweet and still unsure, but they loved every moment of it. It was these quiet, private little moments with nothing but the cascading waterfall and the breathy sounds they shared when everything else dropped away. When Zo would open herself up entirely to the Force and be connected fully with Jacen, she let everything else go except him. She felt his strength, his unyielding belief in the light, his love for her. He loved her as wholly and entirely as she loved him.
When they finished, with the taste of each other still lingering on their lips and the other's scent on their skin, they would lie in each other's arms for as long as they dared. Zo lived for these finite moments when she could fall asleep with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and feeling his fingers tracing lazy circles on her back.
"Zoey, we should head back." He said, breaking the spell that held their little daydream together. She grumbled into his chest, pulling their blanket over her head, and tried to disappear into the darkness underneath. Jacen chuckled, making his chest rumble against her cheek. "Come on, you sleemo cheater, I'll race you back to the compound. Double or nothing."
Zo tossed the blanket off her head with a huff and straddled him. "Sleemo cheater?" She gave his chest an irritated slap. She felt him growing hard again, and she rolled her hips against him. He closed his eyes and gripped her hips, grinding his pelvis up encouraging her to ride him. "I thought we had to get back?" She murmured, reaching between them and lining herself up with his length. She sank onto him with a sigh; the fullness of him inside her was something she would never grow tired of.
Jedi guilt gone.
The uncertainty for their future together forgotten.
Just them for a few more moments.
Zo rocked her hips, feeling that incredible tension growing every time he hit something amazing inside of her. Jacen grunted, thrusting upwards to meet the sway of her body and trying to hold back his release until she got hers. Her orgasm pulsed through her, starting at the place where they were joined and rolled out in waves of pleasure that she allowed herself to be selfish enough to enjoy. Every part of her connected entirely to the Force in this one moment, and she was no longer afraid of what waited for them in the darkness between stars.
"Krif, Zo," Jacen grunted through his teeth, the upward thrusts of his hips turning sloppy as he finished.
Zo leaned down, breathing heavily, and kissed him, enjoying his heat inside her. She slowly returned to herself as their moment of escape ended. He rolled them over, placing her on her back as he continued kissing her. They both knew they had long overstayed their time, but they lingered in these final seconds as long as possible. "Stars, Jace-" She murmured against his lips; if they didn't stop now, they would never get back in time. She sat up with a startled look on her face, her fingernails cutting into his chest in fear instead of passion. He felt it too a moment later, an intruder in the dark outside their sanctuary, something cold and seething with anger.
Zo scrambled away from him, pulling her robes on as she went. "Nel?" The tremble in her voice echoed off the stones as she called out to her sister. She got a flash of acid yellow light as an answer. The lightsaber thrummed loudly off the rock walls as her sister crept out of the shadows. "Nelie, listen to me." She took a step forward. Hands held out empty in front of her. "Put your weapon away." Behind her, Jacen slipped into his pants and stood.
Nel's dark eyes roamed around the cave, lingering on the tangled pile of blankets. "This is forbidden. You'll both be banished."
"We are going to speak with Master Vatari. She'll understand," Jacen replied.
Nel looked at him, curling her lips away from her teeth in an ugly sneer. "Perfect Jacen Cendar…perfect Jedi Knight…is this why you denied me? To be with weak, pathetic Zo-"
"Enough, Nel." Jacen took Zo's hand and squeezed it. "I love Zo, and she loves me."
"Love is forbidden," Nel replied. She moved almost too fast to see, her muscles tensing as she swung her lightsaber. Zo countered the blow as she pushed Jacen away. He stumbled back as the sisters circled each other, their lightsabers hissing and spitting through the damp air as they fought. Nel screamed in fury each time their sabers connected, her voice echoing around the stone chamber.
"Nel, stop!" Zo finally yelled, Force pushing her into the wall. She sheathed her lightsaber and stood still. "I'm not going to fight you. I know you're angry. I didn't want you to find out like this."
"How long have you been hiding this from me?"
Zo sighed and looked over her shoulder at Jacen, "Two years."
Nel laughed and shook her head, sheathing her lightsaber. "Two years? Good for you, sister. Keeping a secret around here for a week is impossible."
"Are you going to tell Master Vatari?" Zo asked, her voice small and worried.
Nel crossed her arms and looked them up and down. Her eyes lingered on Jacen's bare chest before flicking to her sister. "Is it true you're going to face the trials?" She asked.
Zo nodded, "Dawn of the new rotation. Will you give me until then?" She stepped forward, reaching out to touch her sister's arm. "Please, Nel. I never meant to hurt you."
"Hurt me? You mean nothing to me." Nel pulled her hand away from her sister with a cold laugh.
Zo turned on her side and slowly opened her eyes. She stared at the dull grey metal in front of her for a few moments trying to sort out where she was exactly. Her head pounded, her muscles felt tense and wiry. She brushed tears off her cheeks with the back of one hand while reaching out to trace the mythosaur etched into the hull in front of her.
She was on the Razor Crest. She was safe. Her past couldn't hurt her. She was still outrunning the cold shadow trailing her. She pushed herself up and rolled the knots out of her shoulders and neck. The hold was empty, no big-eared fifty-year-old baby crawling between boxes while an armored Mandalorian kept a patient eye on him.
The grated floor was cold under her bare feet. The recirculated air felt good on her skin as she walked towards the crate of water and ration bars. She quickly gulped down two canisters of water, the liquid divine on her parched tongue. Then she dug through the ration bars until she found the fruity flavor she liked and tore the wrapper off with her teeth. In between ravenous bites of the chewy bar, she wandered over to the meatscicle hanging from the carbonite rack. Jox's slack grimace frozen forever in carbonite, the outlines of his sharp teeth made her stomach twinge with the fresh memory of pain.
"You shouldn't've fought so hard." She muttered to the frozen remains of her would-be killer. She sensed the kid and Mando in the cockpit and turned away from the dead man to climb the ladder. "Dank farrick, is that me?" She grimaced as a sickly stench wafted from her raised arms. No wonder they kept clear of her. She decided a detour to the 'fresher was necessary before joining her companions.
Grogu cooed happily and crawled toward the cockpit door when Din heard the sound of water from the fresher. "I don't think so, buddy," he said, scooping the kid off the floor before he could escape. Grogu grumbled unhappily, opening the door with a wave of one of his tiny hands. He felt his boots slide across the floor as the little baby pulled them towards the hatch. "I'll let you see her when I know it's ok," Din promised as he fought his way back across the cockpit and sealed the kid inside his pram.
Mando landed with a heavy thump at the ladder's base just as Zo stepped out of the 'fresher. She tucked her towel tighter around her body and watched as he walked towards her. "Hey, Bounty Hunter, glad you aren't dead." She said, smiling at him.
He was more relieved than he would admit to himself seeing that smile. Zo was still sickly pale, but her eyes were bright and alive. "I'm glad you aren't dead either...Jedi." He responded, shuffling his feet nervously. "You feeling ok?"
Zo considered for a moment. "Better than him," she hooked her jaw towards his dead bounty. "Sorry 'bout that, by the way. I know your old pal wanted him alive…."
"He fucking deserved it." He said, touching the warm, fleshy bandage on her neck.
"Spoken like a true mercenary," Zo leaned towards him, the brush of his fingers warming some of the chills her dreams left behind. "And Ranzar? What are you going to tell him?"
"I'll deal with Ran," he said quietly, watching as goosebumps broke out across her skin and water dripped from her long hair, down her chest, and disappeared into the folds of her towel. "You almost died, cyar'ika. You almost died because of me…."
"I almost died because I made mistakes… Jox said he killed you, and I fucking lost it-" she shook her head and drooped her eyes in shame, "I could've left the kid… Shit the kid, is he ok?"
"Yeah, he's been a real pain in my ass, but he's good. He wants to see you." She could hear the smile in his voice, and it hurt her heart a little, knowing she would never get to see it. "Here," he said, finally dropping his hand away from her. When he raised it again, he held her lightsaber. "Kept it safe for you. You can give it to Grogu yourself– if you still want to get rid of it."
She wrapped her fingers around the hilt but didn't lift it out of his hand. "Grogu...I almost thought all that was a dream." She looked down at her bare feet, realizing that the rest of their conversation probably hadn't been a dream either. That moment of weakness and desperation as she inched closer to death, she told him, Mando/ Din, whoever he was under the armor, that she cared for him.
"Thank you...Mando." The name he didn't want to hear hung heavy in the air between them. The silence stretched on well into the borders of awkwardness. His helmet tilted, and she felt his eyes boring into her behind the visor. "Now that we both aren't dead, I guess I should get dressed…." Zo said with a small nervous laugh.
"I should check your wounds first." His robotic, raspy voice froze her in place as his gloved fingers traced the bandage on her chest. "Need to make sure you healed properly."
Zo nibbled her bottom lip; her eyes darted to the safety of her little nook as a slow wave of heat washed away some of the pallor clinging to her. "O-ok." Her tongue was heavy and stupid in her mouth; words and excuses to put some distance between herself and the oddly thoughtful bounty hunter caught in her throat. He nodded his beskar chin towards his bunk in a silent order, and she sat, still holding her towel in a white knuckle grip. He moved across the ship and poked around inside a locker for a moment. "I had a vision you were injured, out in the forest-" She said as he walked towards her with an armload of supplies. "Maybe I should check your wounds also."
"It was nothing, mesh'la." Mando said, depositing his burden on the floor as he knelt in front of her. He removed his thick leather gloves and set them on the bed beside her before bending down to retrieve the small canister of bacta. He froze when he felt her fingers trace the bumpy ridges of the fresh scar under the base of his helmet.
"It didn't feel like nothing." She kept her hand there a moment longer, her skin cool against his, her fingers barely caressing the still tender skin.
"I underestimated him, and he gave me a permanent reminder of my mistakes…it's the mark of a jareor, a fool." He placed a thumb on her jaw and tilted her head away to get a better view of the wound on her neck.
She nervously played with the frayed edge of her towel, "Guess that makes us both jareors-" She repeated the word back to him, the constants mixing themselves upon her inexperienced tongue. Mando chuckled under his breath and slowly sounded out each part like he was teaching an idiot child. She tried it again, somehow pronouncing it even more wrong this time.
"Your Mando'a is terrible," He laughed as he slowly peeled up the nanobandage on her neck.
"Well, this Mandalorian warrior I'm kind of friends with promised to teach me, but he keeps disappearing and almost getting himself killed…."
"Who almost got themself killed?" He questioned. A spritz of bacta and a wipe of gauze revealed a shiny new scar, the outline of Jox's teeth barely visible. The poisonous black vines that trailed themselves through her circulatory system had all but receded. With any luck, they would fade entirely within a day or two. "Where should we start, mir'sheb?" Mando replied.
"I haven't heard that word before," Zo said with an excited smile.
"That means smartass." He deadpanned after a moment.
She laughed at his unexpected show of humor. Her laughter was light and airy and helped clear some lingering tension her precarious injuries left behind. She pursed her lips, thinking through the list of words he used most frequently. "Jetti'ika." She settled on the word he seemed to favor when addressing her.
"It's just a nickname. Mandalorians have a thing for nicknames...they don't often translate well to Basic."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "You're lying."
"If you're so fluent in Mando'a, why are you asking me to teach you?" He asked with a sarcastic tilt of his helmet.
"Didn't mean to offend you, Mando." She tapped her fingers across his chest, the muscles underneath his flightsuit as hard as the Beskar he usually wore. "What about mesh'la?"
He was quiet for several breaths regretting the decision to discuss his language with her. "Beautiful. It means beautiful." He quietly replied as he worked up the edges of the other dressing. This wound was still angry, raised, and bumpy where fangs had torn into her skin. Parts of it were still healing, the skin macerated by the venom. "Shabuir," he hissed angrily through his vocoder, running his fingers over the flaw in her skin. "That means asshole." He added.
She laughed again as he applied a cream that made her skin tingle on contact. "It's just a scar. Not my first or last."
"I don't want his marks on you forever."
"Jealous, Mandalorian?"
Mando made a noise somewhere between a nervous laugh and a cough. Zo looked down at his fingers, carefully applying the dressing to her wound as he edged gently around the top of her towel. "You think I'm beautiful?"
His shoulders grew tense, his hands dropped away from her and dug into the mattress on either side of her hips. "I thought you were going to die...I thought you were dying," he murmured, "Grogu's been trying to escape every time I turn my back. He wanted to help you but...I didn't know what to do-"
"I'm sorry," She said, placing one of her hands over his. "I didn't mean to get hurt...I should have been stronger— I am stronger than this...I'm just— stuck."
Mando shook his head, refusing to wrap his fingers around hers. "I almost got you killed. I almost got the kid killed– I should never have brought you along."
"No, please don't say that." Zo gripped his stiff fingers. "Grogu cares for you so much, there was nothing but darkness for him for so long...for me too, until you–"
"You have no idea who I am, what I've done-"
She shook her head, "I don't care about who you were. I know who you are..." His shoulders lost some of their tension as she leaned towards him, resting her forehead against his helmet. "Please stop shutting me out."
"We used Jox to torture and interrogate people-" He mumbled.
Zo's sapphire eyes glinted with hesitation as she stared into his visor, "I don't need to know-"
"You do," he gripped her shoulders, "He'd poison them, and we would fucking watch while they screamed and begged for mercy and I told them– I told them I would cure them once they gave us the info we wanted, access codes, locations of our targets..." His words were short and clipped as if he didn't spew all this truth, he would choke on it. She squeezed her eyes shut against the flood of memories he shared with her before sealing his mind. "There is no cure for Falleen venom except a blaster shot between the fucking eyes. That's who I am."
"I see you, Mando," she gently touched his helmet, "I see you beneath all this...how much you care about your people, how much you love Grogu. I see your light; it shines brighter than anything."
"You were dying because of me." He repeated, gripping her hips, his fingers pressed into her through the towel, kneading and pulling at her.
Her breath fogged the glass of his visor as she breathed out, "I'm ok."
His chest rose and fell with quick, strained breaths. "I want to touch you."
"I want you to touch me."
The thought of what his hands could do to her body when he wasn't in a bad mood gave her shivers of anticipation. She wanted to feel the heat of his skin sink into her body, have it sheathed inside of her, warming her from the inside out.
He slid his hands along her thighs, hot and calloused fingers trailing up, up, up her soft skin until again met with the barrier of her towel. She sucked in a quick breath as his fingertips nearly disappeared under the frayed edge. Nearly but not quite, they changed course at the last millimeter and feathered up her sides, up her arms, across her shoulders, and down her chest.
"Kair'ta," he murmured, resting one large hand over her heart, feeling it beat wildly against his touch.
The ship shuddered as they dropped out of hyperspace, and he remembered they didn't have much time until they reached their destination. "Stars, please…" Zo's eyes fluttered shut as she arched her back, pushing her body towards him. He had barely touched her, and none of his feather-lite caresses were sexual or even romantic, but she was already wound tight enough to explode. And he was still sealed off, calm and relaxed, his emotions as blank as the cold stare of his helmet.
"Kiss me." She regretted the words the second they left her lips. Popping out of her unfiltered and released into the universe like a desperate prayer.
"No."
The answer was short and left no room for argument or compromise. Zo pulled away from him, tilting her head to look at her reflection in his visor. Her shoulders drooped slightly, not that she had expected any less, but she hoped if only for a moment to know what he tasted like, what his lips would feel like on her neck, her breasts, between her legs…
A low warbling cry drifted down from the cockpit, and Mando instantly dropped his hands.
"It's ok. He'll go back to sleep," Zo murmured, reaching for his hand. The baby had other plans, his cries slowly and steadily rising by octaves. Mando stood up. "Don't, please…I– I don't need you to kiss me, I shouldn't have said anything-"
"This was a mistake." He sighed, turning towards the ladder.
Zo repeated, "A mistake?" His words stung, icicles in her blood that froze the heat warming her just a moment ago. "A mistake…"
"I shouldn't have…." He dropped his head and grabbed onto the ladder, looking up towards the still closed hatch and his crying foundling beyond. "You should Get dressed. We'll be at Ran's space station shortly."
He sighed again, bone-tired and frustrated with himself.
"Mando," she called softly. He spared one look over his shoulder at her. She stared off at a point on the wall of the ship or perhaps beyond it, out to the stars that sailed past. "How about cyar'ika?" Her hands gripped the edge of the towel and twisted the fraying linen between her fingers.
"Ask me again some other time." He answered quietly. She nodded once and stood without looking at him. Din banged his helmet against the ladder rung in front of him. Grogu cried again, screaming like someone was ripping his toenails out. "Alright, kid, alright," He said, pulling himself into the cockpit. The baby peaked out over the edge of his pram, tears pouring out of his big brown eyes. He raised his little green hands in the air towards Mando. "What is it, huh?" Mando asked as he swung the kid up and into his arms as the crying petered out into breathy hiccups.
Grogu cooed and pointed a clawed hand as Mando wiped tears off his green cheeks. "What is it? You hungry?" He asked, turning in the direction the kid was pointing.
He fell for it every time; he knew he did. He might act tough or admonish Greef about his doting on the baby, but Din knew he was the softest of the bunch. Hearing the kid cry, his Foundling, the closest thing he would probably ever have to a child of his own did something to him. He would burn the entire galaxy down to ashes if it meant saving the kid even a moment of pain. Grogu clapped and pointed, his meltdown melting away as he got closer to getting what he wanted. "Damn it." Mando sighed as his eyes settled on the silver gear knob.
Zo didn't rejoin them in the cockpit. Grogu crawled between the seats and Mando's legs as he reattached his armor. Ranzar's space station loomed in the distance. An immense, top-of-the-line, all-in-one floating fortress was the hub of Ranzar's syndicate. "Mando!" Ran's voice crackled over the com. "Almost started to think you weren't interested in my offer."
"I had a skank in the scud pie. Took me a couple of days to sort it out."
"Can't wait to hear about it. I just got a shipment of that Bhakata whiskey you like." Ran responded. "Your usual bay is open, so slide on in."
The com went dead, and Mando switched the autopilot off. He looked over his shoulder once more, waiting to see if Zo materialized in her seat before he landed. He sighed out a long "Fuck" as he tipped the controls down and slid the Razor into her old spot. "Stay close to me and Zo, understand? No wandering off, no hide and seek. Got it?" He instructed the baby as he placed him into his floating pram. Grogu sneezed in response.
Zo jumped down from her alcove as Mando readied the carbonite slab containing Jox's remains. Grogu cooed happily, waving his claws and his silver ball as she approached him with a warm, broad smile. "Hello, young one." She greeted him by running her fingers along his big ears. "Well, it looks like Mando saved you from the rabid rathtar that was trying to eat you."
"It wasn't a rathtar," Mando answered for him as the slab slid free of its casing and free-floated horizontally with the help of grav-boosters, "it was a wampa."
Zo flicked her cool blue eyes towards him, "Thought it was too hot in this sector for them."
Mando lowered the ramp and let out a deep breath as the familiar dim lights and stale air of Ranzar's place filled the Crest. At the base of the ramp was the man himself. Ranzar was short and portly with a great mane of frizzy grey-brown hair that cascaded around his shoulders with a beard to match. He sucked on a cigar just like he had in the holo he sent Mando. "I'll speak...let me explain what happened." He said without looking at her. "He'll work with us. He'll give us the info we came for." He said firmly, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than her or the kid, who was still happily playing with his ball.
"And if he doesn't?" Zo asked as they started down the ramp, her face hidden by waves of coppery hair.
"Then you can do your magic and make him tell us," Mando replied quietly. The dock was loud with the sound of droids, ship repairs, and yells, so there was no real need for his lowered tone. Zo answered with a non-committal hum under her breath.
"Mando!" Ranzar called, taking his cigar out of his mouth with one hand and reaching the other towards the Mandalorian.
"Ran," Mando dipped his helmet and gripped the other man's forearm. They shook twice and stepped back. Zo came to a halt next to him and the floating pram beside her. Ranzar's bushy eyebrows disappeared under his mop of hair as he eyed Zo. "This is Zo my…uh…this is Zo." Mando shifted on his feet.
"Zo," Ranzar repeated like he was tasting her name. He licked the end of his cigar and held his hand out to shake hers."You work for the Guild?"
"No. I work with Mando, minding the kid." Zo gripped his hand and reached out with the Force trying to understand what kind of man Ranzar Malk was. His mind was slippery in her grip; thoughts and memories darted around his head like fish through water. She immediately did not trust the man that called Mando an 'old pal.'
Ranzar gave her an oily smile, and she resisted the urge to pull her long black sweater tight around her body. He pulled his dark eyes away from her and turned back to Mando. "Let's get to the business at hand, shall we?"
"About that…" Mando said as the other man stepped over to the floating carbonite slab.
"This son of a bantha's gonna pay for his fuck up-" Ran growled. His eyebrows knitted together in anger as he checked the vital reading. "What the fuck, Mando!" He roared, jabbing his soggy cigar towards him. "I said alive! What the fuck part of alive, don't you understand!"
Mando crossed his arms over his chest, "There were extenuating circumstances, Ranzar."
"Fuck your extenuating circumstances. This fucker owed me blood." He yelled back. Grogu whimpered in his pram, pulling his blanket over his head and held Zo's fingers in his trembling hand. "No fucking deal! Get the fuck off my space station!" Ranzar motioned to a group of men who moved forward, blasters in hand, to force the group back on their ship.
"Damn it, Ran!" Mando yelled. "I'm not going anywhere! You have information on my people, and I'm not leaving without it." The armed men pushed forward, and Mando drew both his blasters. Zo locked the kid safely inside his pram and drew her weapon. The group of Mercenaries eyed the buzzing purple blade warily.
"Put your weapons down," Zo said firmly. Most of the men complied, immediately dropping their blasters to the ground. The remaining men's arms shook, the muzzles dipping towards their feet. "Now!" She added with a yell. The rest of the guns clattered to the ground.
Ranzar smiled and blew out a mouthful of noxious blue smoke. "Been a long time since I've seen a weapon like that."
"Tell us where to find the Mandalorian!" Zo stomped towards him. Ran's smile grew wider, but he didn't answer. "Tell us where to find the Mandalorian." She repeated, putting as much Force into her voice she could. Ran shook his head and took another long drag on his cigar. Zo sighed and looked over her shoulder towards Mando. "Well, I tried." She said with a shrug.
"God damn it," Mando muttered. "Jox attacked her. She killed him in self-defense. I need to find my people. Work with me."
Ranzar blew out more blue smoke; his dark eyes showed no hint of giving in to Mando's plea. "No. You work for me. One more job, and I'll give you the information you want."