19.
The central bay was a buzzing hive of activity. The Irving Boys crime ring had just delivered a hijacked Corellian freighter. Ranzar hovered back and forth, barking orders from a floating antigrav command station as several crews descended on the ship and immediately began stripping it. A fleet of droids moved stolen goods from one bay to another. Xi'an, Burg, and Mayfeld lounged outside the Crest, watching the controlled chaos while Zero prepared for takeoff.
"Baby's first prison break! How exciting!" Xi'an crowed at the sight of Zo and the kid appearing from the labyrinth of towering ship parts. She reached out a hand to pet the baby as he hovered past in his pram. Grogu spit at her through his stubby teeth. Burg cawed raspy laughter as Xi'an whipped her hand back in shock.
"Smart baby." Migs remarked, stomping out a cigarette under his boot as they strolled past.
"Disgusting little rat." Xi'an hissed through her sharp fangs at the child. Grogu squeaked in alarm and hid under his blankets.
"E chu ta," Zo muttered, waving the pram ahead of her and up into the ship.
"What did you say, little mouse?" Xi'an asked, stepping into her path.
"I said get the kriff out of my way," Zo replied, gripping the straps of her bag to stop from reaching for her saber.
"Or what?" Xi'an lunged forward, switchblade in hand. Her wrist snapped back and forth in a fluid, practiced motion as the blade popped up. "I could cut you down right now." She threatened, pressing the sharp edge into Zo's throat.
Zo sensed Burg and Mayfeld circling behind her, watching the unfolding drama like bored housewives. Mayfeld witnessed the first round of their tiff on the way to breakfast, razor-sharp silence from Zo while Xi'an smirked at her like the cat that caught the beskar plated canary. It had been Migs that told Xi'an to shut her rancid mouth when the crazy Twi started going into a play-by-play of the previous night's events; it was way too fucking early to hear where Mando put what. When the lift finally stopped at the mess hall, Xi'an found herself unable to move, held in place by some invisible force. The baby stuck his tongue out at her snarling face as the lift doors slammed shut. By the time she made it back to the mess hall, morning rations were gone. It didn't take a genius to realize the Mandalorian was either very brave or had a death wish.
"Maybe if that mouth of yours was good for anything besides scowling, Mando wouldn't've spent last night with me." Xi'an taunted.
"Maybe," Zo leaned into the blade, a bright red drop of blood welled up at the edge and dripped down her throat, "You should stick that little knife in your eye." Cold tendrils of dark Force power ebbed out of her and slipped into the other woman's mind.
"My…eye?" Xi'an's purple eyes clouded and grew distant as Zo's command took hold.
"Your left eye." Zo nodded encouragingly as a flicker of hesitation crossed Xi'an's face. Xi'an turned the dagger towards herself, the sharp point aiming for her pupil. "Do it." The power she held over the other woman was terrible and wrong but intoxicating; the Power that came from that seemingly bottomless well of anger inside her. Xi'an's hesitation disappeared, and the knife inched forward. A beskar plated hand knocked the blade away before it found its new home in her skull.
"Stop it, Zo," Mando growled.
A muscle in her jaw clenched as she looked at him. "She started it."
"So end it." He demanded.
She waved two fingers at Xi'an. "Forget this ever happened." Light flowed into Xi'an's eyes as Zo withdrew her will and continued her way up the ramp.
Mando stared down at the Twi'lek woman. "I told you to stay away from them."
"You know how tingly that bossy tone makes me." Xi'an purred. "Besides, she and that little rat started it." She patted the top of his helmet before strolling up the ramp into the Crest. Mando sighed and bent down to retrieve her dropped knife. He slowly straightened up and met the stares of Burg, Mayfeld, and Ranzar. He didn't miss the sidelong glance Mayfeld and Ranzar shared before the ex-Imperial sharpshooter silently followed Xi'an up the ramp.
Burg clomped up last, pausing to stare down at Mando. "Two females fighting over a tiny metal man…." He shook his horned head in disgust.
Mando tucked the knife into his belt and turned his visor to Malk, who hovered just a few feet away. The other man puffed his cigar and narrowed his shrewd eyes, "Bring Qin back, Mando. Whatever it takes, No questions– We'll be square, and I'll give you what you came for."
Mando nodded once before turning away. He didn't speak to the others as he climbed into the cockpit to release the piloting controls to the droid. Burg opened lockers and poked his horned head inside. Migs slouched against a wall. A sarcastic smile lit his face as he watched Xi'an watching Zo as she settled Grogu into Mando's bunk.
"Me and my third wife never went in on a job pissed at each other," Migs said sagely as the engines roared to life and Zero piloted them away from the spaceport. Mando slid back down the ladder and leaned against the wall outside his bunk. Zo pointedly ignored him. She was still angry at him, fucking pissed and humiliated if she was honest with herself. Her anger buzzed around her like a forcefield he knew not to cross. He hadn't apologized, not in the slightest. Instead, he offered another weak olive branch to placate the testy Jedi. "You two wanna work out the kinks. I'll watch the kid for you. I'm great with kids." Migs finished with a smirk.
"Not enough room in that tiny bunk for anything kinky," Xi'an commented. If their teasing bothered him, Mando didn't let on. He leaned motionless against his chosen spot on the wall and remained silent.
"Does he still like it in the cockpit under the stars, little mouse?" Xi'an asked as Zo brushed past the Bounty Hunter without looking at him. Her ears glowed bright red, but she didn't answer.
"Who knew Mando was such a romantic?" Mayfeld laughed. "He ever take that stupid bucket off when you two were…." He finished with a rude hand gesture.
Xi'an shook her head, "He's very devout." She pressed her hands together in mock prayer, and the two of them burst into laughter.
"Those aren't yours." Zo snapped at Burg. Crumbs of pilfered cookies rained down on his leather vest as the Devaronian stood to his full height, two heads taller than her.
He shoved another cookie into his mouth and growled, "I'm hungry."
"So is the baby." She stepped closer, and the big male flinched. "Go, sit over there, and don't touch anything else." Zo pointed to a corner in the back of the ship. Din recognized the command in her voice and how easily her magic affected Burg. Burg nodded compliantly and slouched away. She gathered up an armload of snacks for the baby, glared at the three guests, ignored Mando, then climbed into the bunk and slammed the hatch shut.
Grogu curled into her lap as she dug out the datapad Greef had given him and started a holovid. Quiet conversation and the sounds of a quick scuffle broke up the monotony of the flight to the prison transport. The noises of the cartoons and the ship blended as she tried to calm the angry storm brewing inside her. She willed herself to relax and clear her mind of all emotions.
The stunt she pulled with Xi'an crossed a dangerous line. She hadn't planned on letting things get that far out of her control. But Xi'an's cruel smile ripped the fresh scab off the wound Mando's rejection left on her ego. An acidic wave of shame and guilt rolled inside her as a cloak of cold settled across her shoulders. She promised herself to do better, be better, and be the Jedi her Master believed she could be, and so far, all she had done was fall further into her anger and fear. The only time she could reach into that vast ocean of Force power and bend it to her will was when she let the darkness in.
Her mind eventually cleared, and she opened herself to the others. Their emotions and thoughts swirled around the ship like a nebula. Mando was a warm, steady presence but hid his thoughts behind the vaults in his mind. Burg was thinking about food, Xi'an was thinking about Mando and Mayfeld. Zo withdrew her empathic consciousness before seeing or feeling anything she would regret. She slid into Mayfeld's thoughts and found the sharpshooter was thinking about a brick wall.
"Don't let her in, don't let her in…bricks, airlocks…that god damn Beskar's worth a fucking fortune…Jedi? The Empire killed all those traitors...no damn it– brick wall, brick wall–" His thoughts were loud. She could almost feel his forehead wrinkling with concentration. She wrapped her hand around her lightsaber and set the baby in his nest of blankets.
Mayfeld's head shot towards her as Zo opened the bunk. "The kid alright?" Mando asked as she uncurled from the bed and stood. Mayfeld's legs bounced up and down nervously as he quickly shifted his focus to a spot on the floor.
"Get the droid out of the cockpit. We need to talk." She said, not taking her eyes off Mig's bald head. Mando didn't question her further as he moved towards the ladder. He was halfway up when the ship plummeted out of hyperspace.
"We are entering the Bothan-5 security perimeter," Zero announced as the Crest twisted and fell end over end so quickly the artificial gravity couldn't keep up. Mando tumbled off the ladder, slammed into Zo, and sent them both crashing. He wrapped his arms around her using his Beskar to protect her from being pulverized by crashing boxes and Burg. Distantly she could hear Grogu laughing and curses and grunts of pain from the others.
"Docking with the Bothan-5 now," Zero announced suddenly. The ship shuddered then went instantly still.
"We have successfully docked and avoided detection."
"Fucking droid…" Mayfeld moaned, crawling out from debris that toppled out of a locker.
Mando landed on top of Zo. She squirmed under him, "Krif, Bounty Hunter, you're crushing me!" He rolled off of her with a groan. "Grogu? Grogu, are you ok?" She crawled toward the bunk. The baby appeared under the jumble of snacks and blankets, giggling with excitement.
"Everybody up. Clock's ticking." Mayfeld ordered. He cast another nervous look at Zo and Mando as he rolled to his feet. "You're up." He pointed at Mando.
Mando looked at Zo, "We still need to talk?"
"Watch your back." She muttered, turning away from him.
The others stood aside as Mando connected a scrambler to the Bothan-5's docking hatch. Something whirred and buzzed then the hatch slid open. They drew a collective breath waiting for any sign of being detected. No alarms sounded, and they slowly relaxed. The first step was a success.
Mayfeld clapped his hands, "Who wants to go in first?"
After a quick game of lizard-snake-toad, Mayfeld was the spectacular loser and slipped down the ladder first and into the prison transport. Burg, who barely fit, followed. Xi'an blew a kiss and waved at Zo before following the others. Mando looked to her again as she began tidying his bunk. "What did you...feel?"
"Does it matter?" She shook her head, "I'll be here- if you need me."
The other three were waiting for him at the base of the ladder. The corridor before them split in three directions. Occupied cells stretched on as far as they could see. Mayfeld jerked his chin towards the left passage, "Zero's sliced into the ship's map. Command centers this way, we gotta find Qin in the prison rosters."
Grogu's ears twitched as he watched Zo clean up the ship. The droid hadn't even bothered to apologize for the rough landing. "I probably could've landed the ship better than that damn bucket of bolts." She grumbled, righting a storage container taller than she was. Grogu cooed and held his datapad out for her. "You want to finish Star Kid and the Cuddly Comets?"
The crew made it three-quarters of the way before they ran into their first problem. A tiny mouse droid rolled out of a hidden nook and bumped into Burg's ankle. The Devaronian howled in agony. "Burg, get the damn droid!" Migs hissed as the red alien hopped up and down, rubbing his ankle. The droid squeaked in alarm, rolling between Burg's stomping feet. Xi'an squealed with laughter as the droid zoomed away, screeching alarms as it went.
"Kriffing hell-" Mando grumbled, jogging after the little tattle-tail droid. He rounded a corner and nearly slammed into a floating sentry droid. The droid slowly rounded on Mando and scanned him; processors whirled and clicked in confusion when it realized he had not escaped from a cell. It floated a few feet closer, and Mando drew his blasters. The mouse droid exploded in a shower of sparks as Xi'an threw a dagger right into its central processor. Burg tackled the sentry droid next, lifting it above his head then slamming it into the ground. Applause and catcalls rang out from the surrounding cells.
"Watch your six, enforcer droids in-coming," Mayfeld reported as a half dozen highly armed droids ran towards them, blasters firing as soon as they rounded the corner. The crew dove for cover, Mayfeld's droid-linked blaster, fired over his shoulder as he barked orders.
An electric chill crept up Zo's spine a breath before a barrage of hollow pops echoed up through the docking port. "I fucking knew it," she muttered, setting the baby back down on his bundle of blankets and crawling out of the bunk. "Zero! What the kriffing hell is going on!" She yelled up at the droid.
"It is none of your concern. You are not a part of this crew." Zero droned back.
Zo muttered a string of increasingly colorful curses as more blaster fire popped off. "None of my fucking concern? My fucking friend is down there, droid!" She yelled back, climbing up to the cockpit and poking her head over the ledge.
"Dank farrik," She yelped as the hatch slammed shut, nearly decapitating her in the process. Her feet slipped off the ladder as she jerked away and tumbled back down to the steel floor. The air rushed out of her in a painful gasp as she hit the hard ground. Grogu cooed at her, peeking out of the bunk as she moaned. Her head throbbed from the impact, and she blinked away the black spots dancing in front of her dazed eyes. Her vision cleared enough to see the cockpit hatch slide open and Zero's oversized visual processors leer down at her. "You karking paperweight, you almost took my gods damned head off!" She groaned up at him, rubbing the growing knot on the back of her head.
"Yes…my calculations on your reflexes were a bit off, it seems." Zero replied as Zo rolled unsteadily to her feet. "I have already made adjustments. You will not escape again." He jumped down from the cockpit, landing with a heavy thud that reverberated through the ship.
The droid raised his blasters and fired without further warning as she rolled out of the way in the tight space of the hold. She sprang to her feet, lightsaber in hand as the droid pivoted and fired again. The laser bolts went wide, ricocheting off the locker next to her head and grazing her left shoulder. The pain burned down her arm as she somersaulted over a box of ship parts , pulling with the Force as she went. Zero stumbled to his knee joints, his blasters flew out of his hand and clattered away into a dark corner. "Who pissed in your processors?" Zo wondered as the droid struggled to right himself. She didn't give him the chance to answer as she sprang forward swinging her lightsaber down and separating his head from his body.
Before Zo could spear her lightsaber between the droids rapidly dimming visual processors, Ranzar Malk's disembodied voice called out from Zero's communicator, "Zero, finish the woman and tell Mayfeld to take Mando the fuck out as soon as he gets a shot." She plunged her lightsaber down with a snarl then kicked the droid's head across the hold. Cold anger and fear gripped her heart; Mando was in danger. Again. She had done this. She hadn't made him understand her suspicion, her immediate distrust and dislike of Ranzar Malk and his cronies. For all she knew, Migs had taken his shot and left him to bleed out on the prison floor.
No. No. Zo thought. She would know if something like that happened. He was in danger; she felt the shadow as it circled over them like a great vulture waiting to strike. He was alive. And she had to find him.
"Stay put, young one." She ordered. Grogu pried his eyes away from the datapad. Zo's scuffle with the homicidal droid had not been as entertaining as Star Kid and the Cuddly Comets. He held a cookie out to her and cooed. "Thank you, Padawan." She took the offered cookie and locked him in the bunk with a wave of her fingers.
Blast doors sealed off the corridors leading away from the docking port. Prisoners hooted and catcalled from their cells over the blaring alarms. She looked to each of the three doors and reached out with the Force sensing for Mando. She felt a slight tug to the left and pivoted that way, her lightsaber glowing to life as she thrust it through the first layer of the blast door. It was slow work, but her saber cut through the layers of endura steel until the locking mechanism melted and the door hissed open. She came upon a half dozen enforcer droids trying to force their way through a locked hatch at the other end of the corridor.
After dispatching the droids, she followed the threads of Mando's presence, finding more destroyed droids and blaster scorched walls. She cut through three more blast doors; each step further into the prison made her stomach knot with trepidation. A thought, a silent cry for help shot down the tangled threads of the Force she trailed, then a searing pain near her left shoulder made her stagger to her knees. Mando's voice, clear and unencumbered by the vocoder, rang through her mind. He was injured, outnumbered, and running out of time. "Stupid, stubborn Mandalorian-" She grumbled under her breath, sprinting down the next corridor.
Finding the lone New Republic guard in the command center had been a shock to all of them. The poor kid barely looked old enough to shave, and here he was left alone to guard 657 prisoners. The guard complied with every command, deactivated the remaining N3 units, gave them Qin's cell number; he had even given them the emergency alert beacon. Xi'an killed him anyway, a quick tilt of Mayfeld's chin and her dagger went flying. Threats, fists, and blasters came next.
Din struggled to his knees. Every part of his body not protected by Beskar ached. The Devaronian had found the unprotected parts of him and sunk his meaty fists in. Burg laughed as he tossed Din across the control room like he weighed nothing. He slammed into a bank of monitors, rolled off the control panel, then lay on the ground for several long seconds wondering how he let things go to shit so quickly. His shoulder throbbed. With each pulse, warm blood oozed around the dagger lodged there. The fingers of his left hand were tingling and beginning to go numb. Before he could decide whether to yank the knife out and use it to defend himself, Burg was on him again, tossing him back across the room. A ragged breath whooshed out from his helmet as he landed next to the dead guard, his glassy eyes frozen in shock. Burg pounced on his chest, a surprisingly spry move for a creature built like a tree trunk, and pinned his arms to the ground.
"Mayfeld," Mando grunted, "what the fuck is this about?"
Xi'an knelt in front of him, her upside-down face grinning with violent delight, "Just business Mando." She twisted the knife embedded in his shoulder. Crimson pain roared through his body. "You owe a debt. I'm not the only one still pissed about Alzoc III." She placed a delicate kiss on the center of his T-shaped visor.
"Let's see what's under that helmet," Mayfeld jeered, stepping towards him.
Xi'an cackled, "Watch the flamethrower." She wrapped her fingers under the jaw of his helmet. Din's shoulder joints screamed as Burg settled his total weight on top of his splayed arms. He started bucking wildly, cursing in Mando'a and Basic.
"Tiny metal man, so afraid to lose his shiny hat." Burg laughed as the helmet began to slip up.
"Come on, Xi'an, we ain't got all rotation." Mayfeld huffed. "You owe me fifty creds if he's a Gungan," Xi'an grunted in annoyance when Mando nearly headbutted her when she leaned too close. The helmet slipped up over his jaw, and the walls of the control room shuddered.
"What the hell–" Mayfeld turned towards the steel door as it trembled and shook in its frame. Then the room was filled with a high-pitched, grinding screech as the door tore away, leaving nothing but a ragged hole. Security alarms blared, and the ship plunged into blood-red strobe lights. Xi'an and Burg flew off the Mandalorian and into the air like rag dolls caught in a whirlwind. Mig's droid blaster fired wildly into the smokey red light as a figure darted forward. Zo's lightsaber hissed through the air, the purple blade a perfect extension of her arm as she sliced around and down, severing the droid blaster from the pack Migs wore on his back.
Zo spun in a tight circle and kicked Mayfeld in the chest, sending him crashing back into the control panel. She raised one hand and Burg and Xi'an flew up towards the ceiling. She blew out a long, angry breath through her nose and looked up where Burg and Xi'an struggled futilely against her hold. The latter was pinned under Burg's massive form, screaming muffled Twi'lek curses. Mando pushed his helmet back into place, his hands shaking from more than adrenaline. Zo caught the briefest shadow of dark facial hair across his chin and upper lip. "On your feet Bounty Hunter," she said holoing out her hand. He grasped it and was surprised at her strength as she hauled him to his feet. "Shall I kill them for you?" She asked quietly. The three assailants sputtered and coughed as invisible hands asphyxiated them.
Mando rubbed his thumb along the top of her hand. "They aren't worth it, cyar'ika." Something warm blossomed in her chest, melting the icy tangle of anger that had been growing since their argument the night before. Zo released her hold, and they drew in a collective gasp of air.
"Get this giant oaf off me!" Xi'an grunted, still pinned under Burg's massive body. Zo raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and Mando bobbed his head once more. She heard his quick, harsh laugh as she let them drop to the floor.
"What do we do now?" Zo asked as they watched the tangled bodies with disinterest.
"We finish the job." Mando curled his hands into tight fists as he turned his helmet towards her.
Mayfeld, Burg, and Xi'an submissively trailed Mando and Zo. The former had taken only a few words, a firm command to hand over all their weapons and stop fighting. Mayfeld had been more resistant, most likely as a reaction to his years of servitude to the Empire. Mando slapped a pair of electrocuffs on him, and together the five of them made their way to Qin's cell. He was held two levels up and on the opposite end of the ship. Prisoners called out to them, trying to bargain their way out of their cells as they passed.
Mando sliced through the cell's locks using a key pass taken off the dead guard. "Mando! It's been a long time– Alzoc III, wasn't it?" Qin lounged in his cell without a care in the 'verse.
Xi'an squealed in delight as her brother strolled out of the cell like a concurring war hero. Qin lunged for the Bounty Hunter, barring his sharp teeth. Zo swung her lightsaber, the thrumming laser close enough to spark off the patchy hair sprouting from Qin's chin. "Stand over there, don't speak." Again surprising Mando with her quiet strength, he felt the tendrils of her commands brush past the blockade in his mind. Qin was quick and obedient as he stood against the wall, his eyes glazing across his sister's face as Zo ordered her and the Devaronian into the cell.
Mayfeld stepped forward, wanting the protection the cell had to offer. Figuring his odds were better with the New Republic than the Jedi witch. "Gods damn Ranzar Malk," he thought for the thousandth time. He knew when he was outgunned, staring down the barrel of rapidly approaching death and being powerless to stop it. He had seen enough losing battles during his 'service' with the Empire to realize this job was doomed from the moment Malk's greed got the better of him.
Zo swung her lightsaber again, blocking the entrance to the cell. "What about Ranzar Malk?"
Mayfeld swallowed audibly, the last bit of color draining from his pale face. Brick wall-brick wall- brick wall- the thought repeated, each round across his mind growing weaker as fear took hold. She stepped forward, and Migs was against the wall. She blinked, and he felt his feet leave the floor as he slid upward. Fingers tightened around his neck, and through the shock, he saw Mando standing behind her, his arms at his side. He grabbed at the impossible hands around his throat and touched nothing but his skin. She watched him struggling with bored disdain, keeping some dark count as his eyes fluttered closed and blackness seeped in. The grip loosened, and Migs sucked in a quick breath before the pressure resumed. "Why did Malk have you betray us?" She asked.
Malk would have him killed. Not just for blowing this job so spectacularly but giving him up to this woman. He slid another few inches up the wall, and the woman craned her neck to stare at him. She repeated the question, followed by giving him a few seconds to suck in just enough air to keep him conscious. Mando shifted on his feet. He could remember the way that invisible power felt as it killed him. The way it constricted every time he took in a breath. He placed a hand on Zo's shoulder. "Enough."
"No!" She growled. "They tried to kill you! That fucking droid tried to kill me! Why?"
Mayfeld's face was purple. His hands fell limp to his sides. "Credits." He thought, unable to speak around the crush of his throat. Zo cocked her head and released him. He fell to the floor in a boneless heap, sucking in air. When he opened his blurry eyes, she kneeled in front of him.
"What about credits?"
He heaved in another deep breath. "Malk saw an opportunity to make some quick cash said Mando fucked up the gig with Jox…You and that thing in the ship are worth a half million apiece. Plus whatever we can get for the armor," he said to Mando, "…I was gonna go on vacation to Canto Bight, find another ex-wife."
"There are no bounties on either of them." Mando stepped forward, clenching his fists; rivulets of blood ran from his shoulder and dripped onto the floor.
Mayfeld gave him a sly smile, "Anyone who uses a weapon like that, their powers…You're Jedi, enemies of the Empire. There's a standing payout if you have the right connections–I had to take a whole fucking class about you traitors at the conditioning academy."
"Who's Malk's contact with the remnants?" Zo asked quietly.
"Me…" Migs gave her a nervous smile that quickly dissolved into panic, "I still know some people. Loyalists."
"And did you tell these people about her and the child?" Mando demanded. Were they wasting precious time getting away? Would Malk's space station be swarming with stormtroopers when they got back? Fuck. He thought as every potential threat suddenly reared up in his head as one giant, amorphous cloud of dread and death.
Migs shook his head. Oily sweat dripped down his neck and into the collar of his shirt. "I know enough about the Empire not to raise my hand unless I got something solid to hand over."
Zo tilted her head like a cat eyeing the rat she was ready to pounce on. She reached one pale, lithe hand towards him, and Mayfeld shrank back. "You aren't lying to us, are you, Migs Mayfeld?" She ran a finger down his cheek. "I will turn your brain to jelly if I sense any deception from you."
Migs swallowed again, "No– no lie. No one knows what you are besides Malk and me. I told those two idiots they'd get a bonus if they helped take out Mando." She bobbed her chin and gave him a thin smile.
"The ship jumps in fifteen minutes," Mando said, looking at the readout on his vambrace. "We need to go."
Zo stood. "See ya around, Stormtrooper."
"I wasn't a fucking Stormtrooper!" Migs grumbled as Mando hauled him to his feet and pushed him into the cell next to his co-conspirators. Zo severed her hold on the other two as Mando slammed the cell door shut.
Burg blinked several times, staring stupidly at the cell with no memory of how he got there. Xi'an shot to her feet, eyes wide as the reality of her surroundings sank in. "What in the hell? Qin! Qin let us out!" She raged at her immobile brother, lilac arms sticking as far out of the cell as she could reach. Zo stopped short of her fingertips and let Xi'an hiss curses at her. Mando gently took her hand and led her away, reminding her the clock was ticking. She looked back over her shoulder once and blew Xi'an a kiss.
Qin followed as they sprinted back towards the Crest. The Bothan-5 thrummed under their feet as the hyperdrive engines came online. The receiving New Republic team on the other side of the jump was in for a slew of interesting surprises. One dead guard, a fleet of deactivated sentry droids, a prisoner replaced by three hired outlaws all added up to what Zo could only imagine would be a pile of nightmarish bureaucratic paperwork.
Mando didn't complain about the wound in his shoulder but grunted with pain as he climbed the ladder back into the Crest. He saw the destroyed hunter droid, Zero, and the fresh scorches of blaster fire and realized she hadn't brought the child with her. Before he could ask where he was, the hatch on his bunk hissed open. "He's fine." She reassured him as she secured Qin to the same place on the hull where Mando had kept her. Grogu gave him a happy babble. Most of his snacks were already gone, and the credits had just started rolling on his movie. Mando nodded more to himself than anyone since Zo's attention was on Qin. She leaned close to the Twi'lek male and quietly murmured to him. Qin's face paled as he nodded to whatever Zo was telling him.
The climb into the cockpit was a bit more challenging, the muscles of his shoulder throbbed around the embedded knife, but he knew if he pulled it out, he would bleed faster. He needed to disengage the Crest from the Bothan-5 and start the jump back to Ranzar's spaceport before worrying about his injury. Zo and Grogu joined him as the Crest broke free. The prison transport shuddered then disappeared in a swirling tube of blue hyperspace light, rocking the Razor Crest with its wake. Zo laid the baby in his bed with a bottle of water, pulled his blankets around him and exclaimed, "Naptime, young one," before closing the lid on the pram.
Mando felt her settle into the seat behind him and saw her reflection in the canopy as the Crest took off on the programmed flight path. He sighed, "Say it."
"Say what, Bounty Hunter?"
"That was a bad idea." He swiveled his chair to face her.
She leaned back, looking at his blood-soaked flightsuit. She had felt his fear in the control room, the abject dread as Xi'an and Burg tried to disgrace him before killing him. "If Ranzar Malk lied about knowing the location of your people, I am going to kill him," she leaned forward for emphasis, "Slowly."
"Fair enough." He groaned as another twinge of pain rattled his arm.
Zo stood, shucked her jacket off, and tossed it on the chair behind her. "Take it off." She said, turning back to face him.
"What?"
"The armor, the flightsuit suit. Let's go. In case you haven't noticed, you have a knife in your shoulder." She reached down, fingers brushing against his shoulder pauldron as she searched for a way to pry it off.
He brushed her hand away with another pained growl, "I can take care of it myself."
She huffed out an annoyed breath and wrapped her hands around her hips. "Will you stop being so stubborn and let me help you? That or I'll wake the kid up from his nap and have him do it."
Din looked up at her. She had come for him, even after their fight. Known he was in trouble and saved his obstinate Mandalorian ass. She had offered to kill the others for what they had done. He sighed, "There's a magnetic clasp–" He raised his opposite arm, trying to show her but only ended up jostling the dagger. He dropped his arm with another defeated sigh.
Zo found the first clasp for his shoulder pauldron then quickly removed the rest. He was keenly aware of how gently she set down each piece of armor instead of mindlessly dropping them on the ground. The ruined flightsuit was next after he showed her the hidden zipper. She carefully peeled it down his torso murmuring apologies when the fabric caught on the hilt of the knife, and he sucked in a painful breath through his teeth. He sat bare from the chest up, save for the mythosaur charm around his neck and his helmet, and realized this was the most vulnerable he had been in a long time. Zo kneeled in front of him and gently prodded the area around the knife. "You got a cauterizer in the field kit?" She asked, pulling a red metallic box towards her and began digging through it.
"Yeah." He answered. "There's not much bacta left. Should've stopped for supplies…."
She placed several items on his lap: A stack of sterile gauze, the cauterizer, and a spray can of bacta that he knew was just fumes. He had used most of his emergency supplies cleaning and dressing her wounds.
"Guess we'll have to make do." Zo replied with a quiet smile. "This is gonna hurt."
Before he could prepare himself, she pulled the knife out and pressed the stack of gauze to the wound. He yelped out a string of curses as she pressed him back in his seat, pushing herself between his legs to hold pressure on the wound. "You've been a Bounty Hunter for a long time?" She asked, eyes roaming over the scars that littered his bronze skin.
His chest muscles tensed with another spasm of pain as she sprayed the wound with bacta. "Yeah…since I was about twenty." He said through gritted teeth.
"And how old are you now?" The questions were meant as a distraction, to keep his mind focused on something besides the pain. But also because she was generally interested, even though they had been companions for months now, their interactions were limited. A few hours here and there between flights to one destination or another, conversations were kept short. Zo was busy taking care of the kid, and Mando was busy keeping his distance.
He huffed a laugh, "Younger than Grogu, few years older than you."
"I'm gonna close the wound now." She warned him this time, letting him draw in a deep breath and prepare for the inevitable burn.
"Dank farrik!" The cauterizer sparked, and Mando jumped in his seat and grabbed her arm. "Sorry-" He mumbled.
"Never woulda guessed the big, scary Mandalorian was such a baby," Zo replied with another crooked smile.
"Asshole," Mando grumbled. Zo snorted, and he sighed, dropping his helmet back against the headrest but keeping his hand on her arm. The comfort of her warm body so close to him, the soft feel of her skin against his callused hands, and the same sweet tone she used to calm the baby were enough to distract him from the burn. She spoke of nothing in particular, quiet stories of some old wound she had suffered due to a lost fight between her and her older brothers, the time she had nearly cut her own thumb off trying to open a bottle of spotchka.
Zo shifted against him, pushing up on her knees to lean her forearms into his chest to get the cauterizer into a particularly deep gouge in his shoulder joint. "So all this time…no partners? No wife? No lonely lady waiting for you on some dusty rock?"
Din huffed another laugh, his chest rumbling against her arms. "No…to all of the above. Unless you count Xi'an– she might be headed to a dusty rock." They were both quiet for a few moments; only the low buzz of the cauterizer and the muffled snores from the sleeping baby filled the cabin. "I didn't fuck her." He quietly confessed.
Zo's eyebrows knitted together, "What?"
"I didn't fuck Xi'an." Beneath the helmet, he watched her face. He opened himself to her, letting her feel the truth in his words. Confusion, surprise, hurt flitted across her eyes as she focused on his shoulder.
Zo worried her bottom lip between her teeth and was quiet for a few moments while she finished sealing his wound. She set the tool aside. Her fingers grazed over his thigh as she plucked another square of gauze off his lap and dabbed the wound with it. He's eyes darted again to his visor, then down and across the muscles of his chest and arms, then back to his visor. She touched the mythosaur around his neck. It was cool in her palm. "I felt you call for me."
He closed his hand over hers. "I would've died without honor...I didn't know what else to do."
"You're honorable with or without a helmet," Zo murmured, running her hand along the angled edge of his visor. His hand settled on her hip as she leaned into him once again to apply a bandage to the wound. When she was done with the bandage she looked up at the starlight blasting past and let out a long, hurt breath. "Why did you leave with her?"
"I wouldn't've stopped." He answered, tucking a wavy strand of hair behind her ear.
Zo turned her face towards his hand, and his fingers brushed her cheek. "I didn't want you to stop." Her warm breath tickled his wrist before she kissed the skin there. A low sigh escaped him as he settled both hands on her hips. The starlight made her pale skin glow, and he wanted to let his fingers memorize every part of her his lips would never touch.
"If I took you to my bed, I wasn't sure I'd ever let you leave." He pulled up on her tunic, his hands once again on auto-pilot. "That isn't fair to you or the kid. You want to find your people as badly as I want to find mine."
Her fingers feathered along his torso in the same unhurried manner, tracing the lines and plains of his body, finding ridges and raised edges of scars, tracing the dark bruises. "Don't need a bed," she looked up at him through her long lashes, "I heard you like it under the stars." His muscles tensed under her touch, his breathing changed from his practiced Mandalorian calm to something harsh and ragged.
"Fuck, jetti'ika." He squirmed in his chair, beginning to feel like an unseasoned teenager, when she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his chest right below the mythosaur charm.
She kissed him again, higher up near his throat, tasting the salt and spice that was him. "What is this between us, Bounty Hunter?" Her voice was a warm breeze across his skin. "You're like a candle in the darkness…a warm light in an ocean of cold I've been drowning in for so long…."
Din rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. He itched to keep touching her, to have her naked and be inside of her–"Fuck…cyar'ika." He grabbed her hips, pulling her up and towards him. "We can figure it out later–" He stood with her, using his grip on her to angle and direct her across the cockpit as he pulled her tunic over her head and tossed it behind him onto his empty seat. Zo took in a sharp breath when he lifted her onto a panel free of buttons and knobs. His fingers were flames burning away the chilled air that clung to her as he tried to figure out the tiny clasps that were keeping her breasts concealed from his hungry hands.
"Wait, you're gonna rip-" Her voice caught when he growled in frustration and roughly pulled the thin black fabric down. Her breasts popped free and he froze for several long seconds. His helmet tilted down, the dark T-shaped glass reflecting her starlit skin and the splash of freckles hidden between the valley of her breasts. But his hands hovered unsure, suspended in the electrified air between them.
Din dragged in a tight breath, sucking air in through his helmet's filters that was full of her scent. "Mesh'la." His voice hissed out of the vocoder like smoke that curled around her. She could feel his hands on her body, feel the way he wanted to touch her before he did, his thoughts moving faster than his barriers could up.
"What the fuck? Guard! Guard, where the kriff am I ?!" Qin's nasally screech filled the ship.
Zo threw her head back with an exasperated sigh, "Are you kriffing kidding me?" Qin kept yelling, banging his feet and clanking his cuffs off the hull. The lid on Grogu's pram hissed open, and the baby immediately began angrily wailing that his nap was cut short.
Mando reached under the panel between her legs to retrieve a hidden blaster. "I'm gonna fucking kill that–" He muttered.
Zo placed one hand on his chest and kissed the wound on his shoulder. "Stay with Grogu. I'll handle Qin." She tucked her breasts back inside her bra, and Din let out a frustrated growl that he hadn't at least got to touch them before they disappeared. She slipped her shirt back on then disappeared down the ladder. Qin's angry Twi'lek curses cut off a second later and replaced with the quiet susurration of calm conversation. Din still had the furious urge to shoot Qin and finish what he and Zo had yet again started and got nowhere near finishing.
But then Grogu babbled and cooed.
Din set the blaster aside, well out of reach of the baby, and lifted him out of his pram. "You wanna go see what they're talking about?" He asked Grogu. Grogu nodded and pointed his ball towards the hold of the ship. His shoulder still twinged a bit on the climb down but felt like it would hold. The baby squirmed in his arms as soon as his boots touched the steel floor.
"Mando? What the fuck are you doing here?" Qin asked. Zo looked over her shoulder from where she knelt in front of Qin. He set Grogu down and walked towards them. The baby toddled away, looking for snacks.
"You're on my ship, Qin." His bloody flightsuit still hung loosely around his hips as he strode towards the aft. Zo turned her attention back to the Twi'lek before Mando noticed her staring. "You don't remember coming aboard?" He asked. Qin shook his head, eyes darting around the ship as he tried to piece the last few hours back together.
"My sister…where the kriff is my sister?" He asked after a moment. He struggled against the electrocuffs securing him to the hull and began cursing loudly again.
"Enough!" Zo snapped. "Mando is of no concern to you. Neither is your sister. Be quiet and go back to sleep." Qin's head dropped forward, and he began snoring. Zo sighed as she pushed and twisted her hair into a bun on top of her head. "He doesn't know if Ranzar was telling the truth about the Mandalorians." She said, looking up at Mando.
He turned away and headed towards the bank of lockers next to the carbonite freezer. "Guess we'll find out soon enough." He dug through the locker for a moment before finding a spare flightsuit. Grogu crawled out of the shadows chasing his silver ball and laughing. He crawled right to Zo, who cuddled him into her lap. Mando sat on the edge of his bunk, watching them as he began removing his boots.
Zo floated the silver ball back and forth in front of the baby, letting his little claws almost close around it before sending it zooming around the ship. Grogu squealed happy giggles as the ball twisted and flew around. "Did you know Qin and Ranzar are lovers?" She asked after a moment.
Mando barked out a surprised laugh as he kicked off his ruined fight suit. "What? How in the hell do you know that?"
"He told me…." Zo jerked her chin to the unconscious man. "No willpower." She added with more than a hint of disdain. Mando hummed under his breath as he zipped himself into fresh clothing. "I can use that against him...against Ranzar."
Din crossed his arms and contemplated her words. "You promise not to turn his brain to jelly?"
Zo smirked, "I don't deal in promises."
Din retreated to the cockpit, putting a few layers of endurasteel and Beskar between him and the Jedi. The annoying throbbing between his legs slowly became a dull ache, a reminder that kept time with his heartbeat that the universe seemed complacent to keep him in a constant state of agitation. The Crest dropped out of hyperspace, and the space station loomed again in the distance.
Zo was busy putting Grogu back into his nest of blankets and toys when he climbed back down to the hold.. "–Kid Comet?" She asked. Grogu shook his head and blew a raspberry. Mando stood outside the bunk, watching them as she made a few more suggestions for his entertainment while they were occupied with Ranzar.
"How about 'Rebel Pilot Adventures'?" He suggested. Grogu clapped his hands at that, and Zo scrolled through the datapad. The show started, and Zo crawled out of the bunk as the ship slowed for its descent into the docking bay.
She double-checked the baby had enough snacks and battery power to last a few hours if necessary. "Stay put, Padawan. Mando and I will be right back." Grogu snuggled into Zo's brown blanket and shoved a cookie into his mouth before she sealed him safely in the bunk. The Crest slightly rocked as she settled into the docking berth. Zo's hand fell to her hip, resting on the hilt of her lightsaber as she cast a glance at Qin. "I need you to trust me if things start to get out of hand," She said, turning to Mando.
"I–do trust you." He replied slowly.
Zo nodded, "Qin stays with me. I can read him. I can control him. I can use him against Ranzar if I need to."
Something cold slithered down his spine at the dark look
she gave him as they walked towards the slowly lowering ramp. Qin's cuffs popped off the wall, and she waited for him to stand before gripping his arm. "Remember what we spoke of, Qin. It would mean nothing to me to kill you and your lover." She pressed her lightsaber into his flank and hovered her thumb over the trigger. The now-familiar cacophony and stale air of the spaceport flooded the ship's interior. "Malk has two dozen men with him. All armed." Zo warned.
Mando nodded and steeled himself for the possibility of another firefight as he led them out of the dark interior of the ship and into the docking bay. Ranzar's hooded eyes widened at the sight of the Mandalorian. He chomped down on his cigar hard enough to bite it in half as he tried to school the look of frightened surprise off his features. "Mando…" He stuttered, spitting out bits of soggy tobacco.
Mando tilted his head, resting his hands on the butts of his blasters. "Ranzar, old pal, what's with the welcome party?"
Ranzar shrugged, regaining some of his composure. "Never got the all-clear from Zero. I started to get a bit worried." The men gathered around their boss shifted nervously, blasters and disruptor rifles at the ready. A few murmured nervously as Zo appeared at the top of the ramp with Qin. The mercenaries leveled their weapons on Mando. "Qin! What the hell is this? Qin are you ok?" The portly man stumbled forward when he saw the weapon aimed at his lover's chest.
"I'm Fine, Ran." Qin gave him a tight smile as Zo halted them just out of reach.
"And the others?" Malk demanded.
Mando shrugged, "They didn't make it."
"What the kriff happened?"
"I thought the policy was no questions," Mando replied coolly.
"If you do anything to him–" Ranzar was shaking with barely controlled fury.
The corners of Zo's lips curled up in dark mirth. "You'll what, Ranzar Malk? I'll kill him and half your men before one shot is fired. He'll take out the rest with a few of his nifty Mandalorian weapons. " Ranzar shifted his great bulk as he looked at his uneasy men, seeming to calculate his odds.
"Whatever– whatever happened between you and the rest of the crew- look I didn't have anything to do with that– neither did Qin…." Malk splayed his hands, turning his attention back to Mando.
"Liar!" Zo yelled. A few mercenaries jumped as her harsh voice rang out across the docking level. The angry power behind it made the lights above flicker, and a leaning tower of tires topple over. Someone in the crowd lost their cool, and a red laser bolt shot towards Zo. Her lightsaber hissed to life and she blocked it . The bolt ricocheted off and into an oblivious R5 unit. "Drop your fucking weapons!" The command reverberated through the crowd. Blasters, vibroblades and rifles were dropped without question.
"Tell me where the Mandalorian was last sighted and we'll be on our way, Malk." Mando told him.
Malk brought a fresh cigar to his lips; his hands trembled slightly as he flicked the lighter. "Listen Mando, we've known each other a long time. Did a lot of jobs together back in the day… You know how hard it is to find good help these days and– and now I'm four mercs short," he took a long puff on his cigar. "Let's you and me work something out; I gotta couple jobs in the pipeline–"
Qin crumpled with an agonizing, high pitched scream that cut off Ranzar's haggling. Ran's cigar dropped out of his mouth and he lumbered forward pushing Mando out of the way to try and get to Ran. Zo whipped her lightsaber around, holding the spitting purple blade a breath from Malk's frizzy beard. Qin screamed again, his body writhing spastically as Zo curled her fist. "I will break every bone in his body in alphabetical order," she promised. Qin's screams raised an octave, high and desperate as he twisted and contorted and something inside him made a harsh grinding sound. Mando took a halting step forward, his hands curling around the butts of his blasters.
"Mando– stop, stop this," Ranzar blubbered.
Zo tilted her head in warning, her blue eyes growing dark as they shifted to the Bounty Hunter. He forced himself to relax the grip on his blasters and dropped his hands to his sides. "Where is the Mandalorian?" Her voice carried on a cold breeze over Qin's shrieks.
"Mos Pelgo! Mos Pelgo! Tatooine!" Ranzar screamed. "Fucking let him go!"
Zo's shoulders dropped, her clenched hand relaxed and Qin went silent. She nodded once to Mando before kneeling next to Qin. She ran her thumb along his sweaty forehead and murmured, "There was never any pain." Qin's eyes opened and Zo brushed tears off his face before helping him stand. "Now go to Ranzar." She patted him on the back as he followed her command and hurried toward the shorter man.
The men embraced tightly and murmured private words to one another. Mando stood off to the side still, shocked and unsure. "Get the fuck off my space station!" Ran growled over Qin's shoulder. "I ever see you or that Jedi bitch again I'll kill you myself."
"Ran, don't speak like that to Mando," Qin chided, sliding one arm around his shoulders. "They were nothing if not wonderful hosts." His smile was full of fangs but held little of the malice he had shown on the Bothan-5. Din cast a final glance at the gathered mercenaries and the reunited lovers before walking up the Crest's ramp.
Zo was already waiting inside the ship. Her skin glistened with a fine sheen of sweat and she was a few shaders paler than usual. "We should go– like now. The New Republic has a required response time of twenty minutes or less."
"What are you talking about?" Mando asked with a tired sigh. She jutted her chin back the way he had come. Qin was presenting Ranzar with the emergency beacon she took from the control room. "Shit…" He pressed something on his vambrace, and the Razor Crest purred to life once more. The ramp hissed shut as the autopilot engaged and the ship prepared to take off. They rocked slightly as the docking mechanisms disengaged and the artificial gravity kicked in. Mando turned towards his bunk to retrieve the kid and found that Grogu had already eaten through the stash of snacks Zo had left him. He loudly burped then clamored into Mando's waiting arms.
"Mando," Zo touched his arm and he jerked away from her. Somewhere deep inside a cold laugh rang out. "I'm sorry– I'm sorry you had to witness that–"
He spun towards her, clutching Grogu tightly. "Is that what you're trying to teach him?"
"What? No! No– never!" She shook her head. "That was-– I did what I had to do. Ranzar wasn't going to budge-"
"You don't know that!" Mando yelled. "You don't even know if he told us the truth!"
"I do know. The Mandalorian is on Tatooine, at least that's what Ranzar believes to be true." She tried to reach for him again but he stepped back. "I asked you to trust me– you said that you trusted me."
"Trust you? What you did to Qin, would you have done that to me?" The cold gaze of his visor cut straight through her.
"You're my friend." Her voice was brittle, cracking around the edges like thin ice. "I care about you– so much, Din."
He whipped his hand towards her and she jerked away, her eyes wide as he jabbed a finger in her face. "Don't fucking call me that. You're a monster."
The stinging tears she was fighting to control broke free and burned hot trails down her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut against the tide of traitorous emotions. 'Monster! He called you a monster. Sounds familiar.' The voice laughed, cold and angry and without an ounce of humor. Zo pressed her palms into her eyes, "I'm not a monster...don't- please don't…"
"Stay away from me and stay the fuck away from Grogu funtil I figure out what to do with you."
She crumpled in on herself like a balled up piece of paper and fell to her knees. Grogu let out a despondent coo, reaching one little claw for her as Mando left her and retreated to the cockpit.
'What would your Master think of you now, Jedi?' The voice taunted before leaving her in cold solitude.