20.

Zo lay on the cold floor for several hours, exactly where she had crumpled in front of Din. Something inside of her shattered when struck by his harsh words. Something that was broken a long, long time ago and pieced together only by the threads of survival.

Her chest painfully constricted as she drew in each breath. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, but she stopped crying ages ago. She was empty, hollow, just like she had been all those years doing unforgivable things.

During those dark years when she told herself she did what she had to to survive.

She hurt Qin without a second thought like she had hurt so many others for her former employer. Except this time when she used the Force to hurt someone, she did it out of anger. She was angry at Malk for his lies and manipulations, angry at Mando for his refusal to understand or believe in her, and angry at herself for her weaknesses.

She lost everything again, she realized. Her little padawan, her begrudging friend, the home she was making with them was gone now, not because of some dark manipulative shadow but because of her unchecked anger and fear.

'Let go of your anger, Padawan, before it destroys you.' The voice echoed out of her past, enveloping her like a spring breeze, warming her cold limbs, and settling over her like the comforting embrace of the mother she never had. Fresh tears sprang to her eyes, leaving salty trails on her face before falling into her already damp hair.

It took some time before Zo could find the strength to peel herself off the hard floor and return to the tiny space she claimed as her own. She spent the long hours that followed deep in meditation. The serene peace of the Force imbued her, sustaining her from thirst and hunger.

The flight to Tatooine took three standard days. Three days of solitary reflection for Zo and cramped quarters for Mando and the kid.

The first day, after the argument with Zo, Grogu kept trying to escape from the cockpit. He would slither out of the pram when Din turned his attention to the navigation or nodded off to sleep. Grogu's muffled cry after he fell or the hiss of the hatch would wake Mando just as the kid tried to make a break for it. Din finally resorted to setting up a motion-activated laser grid so he could get some sleep. Once Grogu realized his chances of escape were nil, he irritably settled in his pram. Din wasn't able to find the words to explain to the kid why he couldn't be with Zo, so he said nothing.

The second day Grogu dejectedly played with his silver ball on the cockpit floor or fussed at Mando's choice of entertainment on the datapad. No amount of Mando'a drinking songs, one-armed handstands, or cookies cheered him up. He remained crabby and unhappy. The few times Mando descended into the hold to use the head or gather more snacks for the kid, he found it empty. His bunk was also empty, and he didn't get close enough to Zo's nook to check on her.

The more distance between them, the better, he thought. The lines in their arrangement had blurred and needed to be redrawn, At least until he figured out what to do. Din had seen what true power she held, and it was terrifying. The Jedi had the potential to be a formidable opponent if she turned on him.

But– but she succeeded where he had failed. Again. Ranzar played him for a fool and, in the process, nearly killed him and Zo. But she saved him and got the information from Malk, and now they were finally on their way. "God damn it," Din muttered, turning back towards the cockpit.

Floating untethered between her body and mind, Zo faced her anger. It was a fire that burned hot and bright, scorching parts of her soul, marring her link with the Force with knotted scars. As quickly as it ignited, her anger burned out, leaving nothing behind but ash and regret. Tendrils of the Force drifted off into the darkness, and she was afraid to face whatever lay at the end of that path. Instead, she reflected on her rage and faced the realization she had no power to change her past. The only thing she could control was the path she took from here on out.

The easier path was to let her anger consume her, burn everything away until all that remained was an incendiary, reactionary husk of the person she used to be.

Or– or she could let her anger go. Give it back to the Force to do with it what it willed. She had no power to change what happened to the Jedi; she could only hope any surviving Jedi Masters would choose a different course to teach Grogu and other younglings. She would not taint Grogu's light with the darkness writhing inside her. She would not force Mando to make decisions that were not his own. Being a Jedi meant being mindful of her interactions with the universe. Keeping her emotions– especially her anger in check - had to be a continuous conscious effort. She would no longer allow it to rule her.

On the third day, Zo woke from her meditation feeling like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She was no longer struggling so hard to keep afloat in dark water. She stretched her arms above her head, her shoulders popped, and fingers tingled back to life. She sat for several long seconds while her body woke from its long slumber. Her stomach rumbled and growled as the first pangs of hunger hit her.

The hold was dim and empty. Zo reached out and sensed the baby and Mando asleep in the cockpit. She blew out a long shaky breath, wondering if Mando had decided what to do with her yet. She stood at the base of the ladder, considering if she should wake him to discuss what she had already decided for herself. Would he argue? Would he even care? Mando thought she was a monster after all.

She decided to let the sleeping Mandalorian lie and ran through a quick stretching routine instead. Her body was still stiff from sitting in one position for so long. After warming up her tense muscles, her stomach insisted that it needed something besides the Force to sustain her. She found the crate where Mando stored the rations and discovered they were dismally low. A couple of dozen water bottles and a few picked over ration bars were all that remained. A pang of guilt displaced her hunger. She had yet to deliver on her promise of credits to ease some of the burden placed on Mando to keep them all fed and the ship fueled.

Zo blew out a tired breath and chose a chocolate ration bar and a canister of water. The cockpit hatch hissed open, and Mando slid down the ladder a second later. "Shit," She muttered as Mando locked his visor on her. His hands curled against his sides as he silently stared at her. "Hey Mando," she gave him a small, unsure smile.

He stepped towards her, coming to a halt on the other side of the crate. "Grogu's hungry."

Her smile widened. She could work with that. "When is he not?" Zo asked. He dug through the small pile of food bars instead of answering. "Is– is he ok? Has he been good?" She asked nervously, shifting on her feet.

He took a deep breath. "He's fine…just stubborn." His hands curled around the edge of the box, and he cursed quietly under his breath. "Haar'chak…I promised him a kriffing chocolate one…." He muttered, digging through the bars like one would appear if he shuffled them around again.

Zo stepped closer. "Here," she said, holding her ration bar towards him. His shoulders tensed, and he let her hand hang in the air between them for several long seconds. The icicle lodged in her throat slowly melted when he finally took it. "I don't mind the mystery meat flavor…." She said, choosing another and tearing the black wrapper with her teeth.

"It's Ewok." He said after she took a bite and began to chew.

Her chewing slowed, and her eyebrows knitted together as she considered this new fact. After a moment of thoughtful chewing, she shrugged her shoulders, "I would never have thought those cute little buggers would be so spicy."

Mando grabbed a couple of bars for himself as Zo took another bite of spicy Ewok. "We're landing in Mos Eisley in an hour." He reported.

"Mos Eisley?" Zo asked. "I thought Ranzar said the Mandalorian was in Mos Pelgo."

"That is what he said," Mando replied with a sigh. "Except there is no Mos Pelgo on my map of Tatooine."

"Maybe– maybe it's a new settlement or an old settlement that goes by a different name now. Things like names change pretty frequently in the outer rim."

"Yeah or maybe"– his tone was tinged with the frustration that began festering once he checked his maps against the location Ranzar gave them– "he just made the fucking name up to save Qin and send us across the fucking quadrant."

Zo shook her head, "No. He told the truth. I'm sure of it, I felt it…."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough. I've got a friend in Mos Eisley. If she doesn't know where Mos Pelgo is, it doesn't exist."

"But Malk–" Zo started.

"I heard what Malk said, and I'm telling you what my fucking maps say…and maybe if we hadn't burned our bridge with Malk, I could've double-checked the intel, but now I won't be able to get within a hundred parsecs of his station without getting blown out of the stars."

Zo felt the dig, felt his irritation and anger. She took a deep breath and let it wash over her, past her, and refused to let it drag her down. "I did what I had to do to break Malk. I'm not in the habit of giving someone second chances after they try to fucking kill me," She took another bite of her Ewok flavored protein bar and smiled at him, "present company excluded."

Mando sighed, "What's done is done. I need to get the kid his snack."

"Have you and him been sleeping in the cockpit?" She asked before he retreated.

"Yes."

"You know I would never– I would never hurt either of you."

"Do I? Know that?" He turned towards the ladder with an irritated swish of his cape.

"Mando," Zo took a halting step after him, "Can I come sit with you?"

"No…" He knew he answered too quickly and silently cursed at himself. He glanced over his shoulder and watched as Zo folded in on herself. The little bit of light in her eyes dimmed like she had expected that answer but hoped for something else. "I know you care about him but…but I just need some space. And I don't need the kid riled up right before we land. He's gonna be excited to see you, and Peli's gonna stuff him full of sugar…he'll be hanging from the rafters until dawn."

"He's your Foundling Mando," Zo said quietly. "You don't owe me an explanation."

"He's your…." He paused, searching for the word "Padawan."

"No. He's not." Zo looked at her feet; her eyebrows pinched together. A warble echoed from the cockpit, and she took an automatic step forward before catching herself. "He's hungry and lonely." She said, turning away, then jumped up to her nook.

Grogu's ears twitched irritably at Mando when he reappeared in the cockpit. The kid cooed and pointed one claw at the hatch. "She's sleeping." Mando lied, handing him his snack. His ears flattened, and he again pointed at the hatch. "Eat your ration bar." Mando felt himself losing the brewing battle against the tiny baby in his floating crib. Grogu blinked his wet, almond-shaped eyes and sniffled. "Don't…don't cry– just eat your bar, it's chocolate–Your favorite." Another blink, another tear, and now an added hitch in his little shoulders. "No, no, don't do that-" Panic was beginning to creep into his modulated voice. What would Zo think if the kid started to wail?

"Peli!" He said suddenly. Grogu sniffed again. His ears twitched. He liked Peli Motto, the curly-haired woman that doted on him and stuffed his belly full of delicious snacks. Zo was close by, he could sense her, but she was walled up in her mind. "We're gonna see Peli soon." Grogu cooed and took a small nibble of his ration bar. "Yeah, I called her, and she's gettin' everything ready for us…so–so don't cry." He gave a relieved sigh when Grogu settled against his pillows and continued eating.

The Razor Crest docked in hangar 4 shortly after he and Grogu finished their snack. Zo jumped down from her bed as they descended from the cockpit. "Hello, little one." She called. The baby squirmed in Mando's arms as she waved her fingers in greeting. Mando sighed and switched the wriggling child to his other arm so he could hit the ramp's controls.

Peli was waiting for them at the base of the ramp, bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. "There you are! My little womp rat!" She squealed, running up the ramp and prying Grogu out of Mando's hands and swinging him onto her narrow hip. She showered kisses all over Grogu's wrinkled head before turning to the Bounty Hunter. "Mando! How the hell've you been?" She asked, clapping him on the back.

"Better since our last trip here."

Peli nodded, her soft hazel eyes fixed on Zo standing unsure behind them. "And who's that ya got with ya?"

Zo stepped forward once she realized Mando wasn't in the mood to answer and held her hand out towards the other woman. "I'm Zo Mara. An…acquaintance of Mando's."

"Acquaintance, huh?" She tilted her head back to appraise Zo top to bottom, then shifted her eyes to Mando before shaking Zo's outstretched hand. Her frizzy hair tickled Grogu's nose, and he sneezed. "Oh my goodness! Is the dust gettin' to you already," She asked. Grogu sneezed again in answer. "You know I've got just the cure for that...double cocoa brownies." The baby clapped his hands happily as they headed down the ramp and towards Peli's office/living quarters.

"We didn't come just for a visit," Mando said, following the squirrelly woman down the ramp and between a gang of pit droids chasing an errant tire.

"Of course not…whaddya need? Repairs? What am I sayin'? Of course, you do. And on credit, I suppose," Peli called over her shoulder. "Look, Mando. I gotta business to run here. Droids to keep oiled, you know how it is."

Mando sighed as he followed her into the garage, leaving Zo straggling behind to take in the sights of the docking bay. "I need to find a settlement. It's not on my maps." He said as Peli sat Grogu down on her cluttered kitchen counter and began opening cabinets in search of snacks.

"Alright. Well, get out with it, Mando. I ain't got all rotation. Where ya headed this time?"

"I need to find a place called Mos Pelgo."

"Never heard of it." She answered, turning to face him and the child with a box of brownies in hand. Grogu reached his claws out, and the box shot towards him.

Mando cursed under his breath. "Can I go through some of your old planet maps? Maybe it used to go by a different name or something." Peli swung Grogu back onto her hip and led Mando further into her living space, where her dusty computer sat lonely and forgotten.

Zo wandered around the docking bay (since Mando made no indication she was invited to follow them into Peli's quarters) and tried to stay out of the way of the DUM droids as they rushed about completing whatever tasks Peli assigned them. Part of her was relieved that Mando and Grogu were distracted by their friend. Another part of her wanted to selfishly interrupt them. She, of course, wouldn't dampen their happy reunion with her goodbyes. She wouldn't have to hear that Mando had come to the same conclusion for the sake of Grogu.

She had to leave.

It was easier this way. She could slip away and be across the galaxy before they realized she was gone. This time, there were no credits involved to entice Mando to hunt for her. True to the cold whispers that followed her, she had never failed at running.

Zo glanced up at the sky, tucking strands of copper hair behind her ear, and cursed the two suns, and their stifling heat as her tunic quickly grew damp with sweat. The starport was hopefully not far from Peli's garage. The sooner she was out of the heat and on a transport, the happier she would be.

A friendly BD unit beeped a greeting at her as the gaggle of DUM droids knocked into an empty fuel barrel and sent it careening into a towering stack of ship parts. Peli came running out of her quarters a moment later, hollering at them. They twitched and beeped their excuses to her as the little BD twittered with robotic laughter. "Can you point me towards town, friend?" Zo asked, picking the little droid up and holding him in the palms of her hands. He danced excitedly, turning in a tight little circle, then held up one of his little legs, pointing towards a large rolling bay door behind her. She gave the droid a bright smile, "Thank you, little friend." She turned to set the BD down on a box when she had another thought. "Would you be willing to do another favor for me?"

The Twi'leks running the casino eyed her with little interest. She was nothing more than a weary stranger with a handful of credit chips, a dusty traveling cloak slung across her shoulders, and hooded eyes that watched the tables with hopeful interest. Zo ordered a stiff drink to calm her nerves before choosing her table. It had been years since she had gambled. Using the Force to gamble wasn't exactly Jedi approved, but she figured since she was doing it with good intentions, it would all balance out in the end. The rules and strategy of Sabac were easy enough to remember. It was easier to read the other players at the table. They were concerned with winning and not protecting their mind from an empathic sorcerer. After purposefully losing the first few rounds to deflect suspicion, she slowly turned the dice and used carefully worded mind-tricks to make the other players favor her plays.

A short while later, she took her small fortune in winnings and left before the owners realized there might be something more than luck to her string of very good fortune. Two men followed her out of the casino and down the alley where she had asked BD to wait for her. Those two men suddenly forgot what they were doing and continued on their less nefarious way after Zo gave them a stern command.

BD greeted her with an excited, happy dance from the light post where she left him. He hopped up to her shoulders and perched there like a metallic parrot. "Thanks for waiting, friend." Zo affectionately nuzzled his face with her fingers. She waved the credit disk with her winnings in front of BD's processors. "Take this back to Peli's garage and give it to the Mandalorian." BD beeped in confusion. "The big, grumpy guy in the metal suit." The little droid wagged his hindquarters to let her know he understood his directions before jumping off her shoulder and disappearing into the crowd.

"Osik." He swiped through another settlement map with no luck finding the elusive Mos Pelgo. Din leaned back with a sigh, glancing at the child playing with his ball and working his way through the pile of snacks Peli had given him. He chose another map file and muttered more curses under his breath.

Din was glad he hadn't tried teaching Grogu more than basic Mando'a. Before Zo came along, he was in the habit of trying to teach Grogu how to speak. He would point at something and say its name in Basic, then repeat it in Mando'a as was required by the Resol'nare. His Foundling was to be taught the native language of his adopted people. Now he was glad he could curse at the useless maps all he liked, and Grogu was none the wiser. He stared at another map, zooming in and out of different quadrants. A pixelated glitch in the outskirts of the Junland waste caught his attention, and he leaned closer to the viewscreen.

"Ya find something?" Peli asked, trotting back into her quarters.

"I don't know…this area of the map– does it look like an error to you?" He pointed to the shifting mess on the screen in front of him.

Peli leaned in close, squinting at the screen. "I dunno." She tapped a couple of buttons on the computer, and the glitch remained. "Hmm, the rest of the map seems ok. Gimme a minute. I think I got some older disks stored away here somewhere." She picked Grogu up, spinning him around before settling him on her hip. "Come on, womp-rat, let's go find some more maps for Mando."

"His name is Grogu," Din called after them.

Peli turned to face him, her eyebrows knitted up in disbelief. "Grogu?" She looked from Mando down to the child in her arms then back again. "Grogu? That's a terrible name! Did you name him that, Mando?"

"No," He laughed. "That's his name. Zo, she's able to

communicate with him…." He paused and looked around the dim interior of the garage, realizing that Zo was not with them. He hadn't seen her since they left the ship. He hadn't said anything to her either, barely acknowledged her presence after she introduced herself to Peli. A swirling acidic storm of shame brewed in his gut. "Actually, have you seen Zo?" Grogu's ears perked up at the mention of her name, and he glanced around the garage, cooing in distress.

"Zo? Who the hell's that?" Peli asked as she continued into one of her storage closets.

"My…the woman that's traveling with me."

"Oh- oh yeah! Your friend!" She reappeared with a box balanced on her other hip. Grogu sneezed as a cloud of dust erupted from the box when she set it down in front of Mando.

"She's not my–" He sighed again, "Have you seen her?"

Peli pursed her lips in concentration. "Nope." She said brightly after a moment of consideration.

Mando pushed out of his seat as Peli began rifling through the box, looking for the map disks. "I'll be right back." He muttered, heading back to the landing dock. The DUM droids were busy making another mess. Their big headlamp-looking ocular lenses reflected the late afternoon sun. Din hadn't realized how long he had been sitting in front of Peli's computer studying useless desert maps. Even Grogu had been distracted with Peli and her endless fussing over him to notice Zo's continued absence. A quick thermal scan of the landing dock informed him Zo was not hiding behind the stack of engine parts or the busted-up speeder.

"Zo?" He called out her name as he walked up the ramp into his sleeping ship. He quickly checked the rest of the ship and found no signs of Zo Mara. A feeling of– what concern? Apprehension? niggled his insides when he saw her little space cleared out. Her bedroll was gone, as was her blanket and backpack. The only thing that lingered was the ever-present scent of fresh oranges and warm ocean air and the comlink he had given her. "Zo!" He yelled once more when he descended into the hold. Jedi couldn't turn invisible, could they?

He stomped down the ramp intending to search Peli's garage top to bottom if he had to in order to find the pain in the ass Jedi. He almost stomped on a little BD droid excitedly jumping up and down at the base of the ramp. "What do you want?" Din growled at the droid that was shaking and trembling like an eager puppy. The BD's little body wiggled as it jumped from foot to foot before holding a thin black rectangle towards the Bounty Hunter. Din bent down to retrieve the card from the droid. "Um…thanks, little guy." He mumbled, awkwardly patting BD's head. The droid made a happy purring noise then scampered off to rejoin his bigger brothers.

Din turned the credit stick over in his fingers. "What the hell–" He mumbled in disbelief as he scanned the card and saw the balance. There were enough credits on it to last him quite a while. "What the hell?" He repeated. Did someone owe him money? An unpaid bounty perhaps…he had so much on his shoulders these last few months he didn't put it past himself that he had let a payment slip through his exhausted fingers.

No, that wasn't it.

He was missing something, something obvious, something literally at the tip of his fingers that wouldn't sink past the thick Beskar covering his skull.

'Any Sabac dens around here? I'm good at turning the games.'

"Damn it." He grumbled, returning to Peli's office.

Peli's garage sat in the outermost ring of Mos Eisely. One of the many good things about having an engineer-mechanic friend was there was always a great chance of being able to borrow a speeder bike on short notice. During the long days the streets were often clogged with both foot and vehicle traffic. As the suns set, roving gangs of Mods and their brightly colored, annoyingly loud speeders replaced the merchant traffic. Mando cruised through the winding streets of downtown avoiding the Mods and their illegal races, and headed for the casino district. He had tracked Zo Mara once, and he would track her again.

By the time he exited the third casino and headed towards the fourth, the optimism for the quick completion of another job was dwindling. Why the hell was he looking for her anyway? Patrons skirted around the Bounty Hunter as he stopped beside the sliding doors and sighed. He kept the kid from her for days, isolated and ignored her. Why wouldn't she leave? Wouldn't that make it easier on him? On both of them? No more arguing or tension. No more crashing boxes or quiet lessons about an ancient unseeable magic that tied the universe together.

Perhaps there would be no more laughter from his Foundling.

And none of that foreign warmth that blossomed in his chest and rose up under his helmet every time he saw her holding Grogu close, sneaking him extra snacks, or when she brushed against him or touched his armor.

A giant transport ship thundered out of the atmosphere above him, distracting him from his string of increasingly melancholy thoughts. "Damn it," he muttered, turning away from the casino with an irritated swish of his cape.

"I'm not locking this up in that case, Rex," Zo crossed her arms, tucking her lightsaber against her chest as she stared at the R-3X stewardess. The droid had pulled her out of the boarding line of the waiting Starliner for a 'routine' security check.

The droid's head bobbed up and down on its telescoping neck. "In accordance with the New Republic's transport safety code 4789b: all weapons must be securely contained separate from passengers except in the instances of on-board Marshalls."

Zo sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as the floating loudspeakers announced her boarding group. "Look, Rex, I get it, I do. Take the kriffing blasters and lock those up. Technically I stole them, but that's beside the point… I don't give a shit if you lose those. But this," she waved her lightsaber in front of the droid, "This is an heirloom, the sacred weapon of my religion, and I can not- will not part with it. It is literally irreplaceable." Giving the lightsaber to Grogu had been one thing but handing it over to this infernally cheerful stewardess droid was out of the gods-damned question.

Rex's head bobbed again as he repeated his previous statement. The line of passengers behind her dwindled, and the Starliner's engines rumbled to life, shaking the ground under her feet.

She didn't sense the familiar, prickly prescience until Mando loomed behind her. Even the droid gulped when he growled out, "What the hell are you doing?"

Zo closed her eyes and took a long calming breath. He really was good at his job. "I'm trying, Bounty Hunter, to tell this soulless kriffing droid I'm not trusting my lightsaber to a lockbox that's going to be tossed into the belly of that kriffing monstrosity because the New Republic doesn't offer religious exemptions for interstellar travelers."

He grabbed her arm and roughly turned her to face him. "That's not what I meant, and you know it, Jetti'ika." He dipped his head down so that his T-shaped visor was level with her eyes. She sighed but didn't wrench her arm out of his grip. He dug through one of his pockets with his free hand then shoved the credit disk in her face. "What the hell is this?"

The ship bleated its final boarding call, and the R-3X unit gathered its stack of lockboxes and slowly backed away from the pair. Zo's eyes darted to the black card held between his fingers. "It's what I owe you for my bounty and the repairs on the ship, room, and board, medical supplies plus interest…." She ground out, yanking her arm free of his grip.

"What the hell is this?" He repeated, his voice hissing through the vocoder as he took a step towards her so that they were chest to chest.

"This is goodbye!" Zo yelled into his visor.

Mando let out a frustrated, angry scoff and tossed the credit disk into the dirt. "I don't want it."

"Hey!" Zo pulled with the Force, and the card flew into her hand, she angrily shoved the card into his chest, but he didn't budge, so she stuffed it back into one of the pockets of his flightsuit. "This is the only thing I'm good at." She pointed her shaking hand at the ship behind them. "I'm not good for Grogu. I'm not good for you. I am not good, and I was a fool to think this would work." Tears slipped from her eyes, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand. "Let me go, let me run. It's the only thing I've never failed at. You have more than enough credits now. I don't owe you-"

"Is that why you think I've kept you around? Because of the credits I've lost?"

"I don't know why the fuck you've kept me around! I'm a monster. I can't outrun my past, the terrible things I've done. If I stay, I will taint him, and Grogu is good. You are good– just let me go." Her words cut through the layers of Beskar, slicing deep and opening a scarred wound where he shoved all his emotions so long ago.

"I don't think you're a monster, cyare." He murmured, wiping tears off her face. "I was frightened by your power. I don't like being frightened….fuck." Din took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. I need– Grogu needs you, he needs to be with his people, with Jedi, to learn your ways–"

"I am not a Jedi… You're his people. He loves you. Our attachment to you and each other– it's not the Jedi way." Zo looked again at the ship as a few stragglers ran aboard before the ramp ascended.

"Then we'll find another way to make this work." Din was quiet for several seconds as he watched her wipe more tears away. She looked ready to shatter again, break apart and drift away like stardust. "Don't leave, cyar'ika. Don't leave Grogu. He's lost enough. We all have."

"My ticket's non-refundable…." She mumbled as he echoed her words. The Starliner lifted off and Zo crossed her arms over her chest watching as it rose through the purples and pinks of the sunset sky.

"I'll pay you back…with interest," Din responded, gently running his hand up and down her arm.

Zo chuckled, wiping her face again. "You're such an asshole."

"I know, Jetti'ika."