Author's Note: Just a little bit of drama. I mean trauma.
xxx
Bane and Boba had effectively taken down the small group of guards patrolling the large inner area of the warehouse. As expected from the predetermined careful planning of their scouting, they didn't run into a single issue. The two worked seamlessly together as a team, silently moving from one guard to the next and incapacitating them effectively before moving onto the next one.
Once the guards were properly taken care of, they could begin their work on figuring out which container was holding the shipment of spice they needed to find.
The interior was almost to that of a small cityscape, with its varying heights of stacked storage containers tightly fit into numerous rows that occupied the large holding space. One end was fitted with a large set of industrial doors, the likes of which could be raised and lowered whenever inventory needed to be taken in or out. In the very middle lay a single track to move inventory more easily, its sides outlined with hazardous black and yellow caution lines. With what little floor space remained in the large room, cables of different sizes snaked out between the columns of hoarded stock.
The young Fett moved from each organized storage area with a readied blaster in his hand, carefully stepping over a few of the armored bodies while also reading the various displays of tracking numbers on the side. Although this warehouse was smaller than most others he had seen within his short lifetime, this was proving to be quite the annoyance to find the right one they needed when every single container looked exactly the same.
"This is going to take us forever to find the right one where the spice is", he grumbled, looking back towards his cohort who was currently stationed in front of a computer control panel near the large doors. The guard that had once been occupying the space was now strewn across the floor next to the chair's desk, his helmeted visor still swaying back and forth from where it rolled.
"I'm workin' on it…", Bane mumbled, his fingers dancing over the monitor's keys while he tried to find the exact line of text he was looking for that would show a better precise location to where their target was. He wasn't familiar with how this kind of information was being stored, and it was taking him longer than he would have liked.
He half-listened to the sound of Boba now roaming down the next aisle of containers closer to him, the teenager further complaining about how he wished this was a live bounty capture instead.
The Duros frowned at the screen. This was the kind of work where he was now wishing Todo was here. The little techno-service droid would have had a much easier time sorting through the data.
Just as he was reading through another combination of letters and numbers that matched what they were looking for, the sound of the smaller doors on the other side of the room whirled open. The noise echoed off the vaulted ceiling from the imposing metal architecture, making its vibration louder than it actually was.
"Stop right there! Holster your weapons and put your hands in the air!" a voice yelled with authoritative intent.
Boba slowly walked out of the aisle between containers from where he just headed down, though he instantly seized up upon seeing the stranger. "Bantha shit, you've gotta' be kidding me", he cursed under his breath upon seeing Scarlett unwillingly dragged along by the last remaining guard to be used as a viable safeguard. He immediately did as he was told, holstering his blaster back onto his side and putting his gloved hands in the air.
The guard from the front of the building confidentially strolled into the room with their own blaster pulled out and pointed towards the head of the person they were walking with. This wasn't her first rodeo with potential bandits trying to procure precious merchandise. She carefully walked next to the black and yellow track, finally stopping a safe enough distance away from the two intruders.
Bane was a bit more hesitant to address the new company ordering them around. Upon slowly looking up from the computer to see who actually had the gall to speak with such intent, a breath hitched in the back of his throat upon seeing who exactly it was that was playing the role of hostage.
He should have expected as much. Things had been going far too well without any sorts of hiccups yet.
Scarlett struggled a bit when they were walking together, her hands desperate to try and pry off the arm that was pulled right up against her neck and keeping her in place. But it was no use with the heavier armor the woman was wearing.
"I should have known something was suspicious when this one started talking my ear off about additional ion engines", the guard began with a click of her tongue, moving to put most of her weight on a single foot while keeping a strong hold on the red headed criminal in her grasp.
There was a long, stagnant pause between the group. The air instantaneously grew thick with a nauseating amount of tension. Everyone was silently addressing their own take of the situation.
Slowly, Bane relinquished his hands from the keys and raised them in the air as well. Being a planner as he was, he was already surveying the scene and deciding upon a couple courses of actions that he could take in order to be several steps ahead. Sharp red eyes briefly flicked from each important piece; from the guard, to her blaster pointing towards Scarlett's head, and then to the person with said weapon being pointed at her.
His right single index finger twitched as he gauged the time it would take to quickly equip one of his blasters again and aim a lethal shot towards the last remaining guard across the warehouse. It wouldn't take much time in the grand scheme of things, but he was hesitant to decide upon that choice.
Although he was an incredibly skilled marksman with a lightning quick gunslinger hand, he didn't know his enemy well enough to determine whether or not they could react in a timely manner With how close Scarlett was to them, they only needed to take a single step to the side to use her as a living defensive shield to take the shot for them instead. Things could go to hell way too fast for his liking.
It was viable, but too risky.
Potential calamity aside, he remained looking as calm as ever on the outside. Although the situation was potentially disastrous for a person he actually liked, he was still holding those cards and regarding himself to be the one in control right now.
Even if the cards weren't exactly lined up to be within his favor.
"Unlucky timing, but we don't know her", Bane lied motionlessly without skipping a beat. He was counting on the fact Scarlett had actually listened to some of the times when he instructed her about what to do if she ever fell into a situation similar to this one. It came with the dues of hanging out with a bounty hunter for as long as she had now. Above all else, he specifically mentioned to her about remaining patient while a window of opportunity worked on presenting itself.
Scarlett remained slack within the unfriendly embrace, focused on keeping herself composed. She had only the utmost amount of trust within the Duros across the room, even if the situation didn't look all too good for her at the moment.
The female guard hummed aloud, the noise catching in the back of her throat upon hearing the bold statement. Her mouth became impossibly taut, the line nearly disappearing on her face. With how nonchalant the bounty hunter was currently reacting to the situation, she almost wanted to believe him. But then her gaze moved to the much younger delinquent.
She suddenly pulled the blaster up much closer to her hostage's head, pushing the end of its barrel into the woman's skull. Scarlett immediately tensed up considerably, her body going more rigid upon feeling the cold metal digging into her scalp.
The guard looked back again as sharp eyes closely observed the body language of the Duros who still didn't react to anything she said or did. He still seemed to be completely unfazed by the sudden aggressive advancement.
Her eyes moved back to the other of the two again, just as the much younger bounty hunter had taken a hesitant step forward like he was about to hastily intervene before things turned messy. She could immediately see his face fall with dwindling realization his impulsive action had caught them within their carefully constructed web of lies. The boy's eyes widened for just a fraction of a second, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down after swallowing down his show of unease.
"Well then", the armored security began, the corners of her mouth nearly stretched from ear to ear upon seeing she had caught the would-be thieves in their lie. She pulled the person in her hold closer towards herself, leaning down to speak right next to the woman's ear. "Isn't that just mildly interesting?"
Boba looked over towards his mentor for guidance, though the man was nearly impossible to read. He chewed on his lower lip in distress, looking back and forth between their groups.
"Who are you working for?" the guard then sneered, pulling the hostage closer against herself and ignoring the sudden squirming from the person in her hold.
"A lousy pirate", Bane answered, his mechanical-sounding voice completely devoid of any humor.
"Listen here, I've had just about enough of your lies already", the woman barked back at the answer, her patience rapidly dwindling.
The bounty hunter merely shrugged at her heated response. "Wish I was actually lying about that one."
"Who are you really working for then?" she continued to press, her tone lowering to a threatening level.
There was a diluted pause between the four as tension continued to steadily rise through the cold air.
Boba finally decided to answer, his worry for his new friend's current welfare helping him string along a new web of lies. "We were hired by the Pyke Syndicate. They instructed us to look for a shipment of spice that had been sent here" he began, ignoring the bead of sweat beginning to build on his temple.
It wasn't exactly a lie, but it also wasn't entirely truthful.
The guard raised a brow upon hearing the mention of the spice traffickers. She knew well of the infamous group, as one had to have been living under a rock in the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim to have not heard of their name.
Bane's brows drew together upon hearing the name as well. He slowly turned his head towards the Fett as the kid continued lying through his teeth about the group they had supposedly been hired by. It wasn't a far-fetched tale, considering that the Pykes had a certain, strong affinity towards the illegal substance. Most rumors about the lengths that the crime group would go to ensure their trade was running smoothly were counted to be quite sincere. There was little that could get in the way when they wanted something.
To put it lightly, the Pyke Syndicate was ruthless.
The guard mulled over the answer before deciding to accept it as the truth. "I assume this is about that shipment we recently received that was marked to be potentially… 'precarious' by my colleagues. Unfortunately for you, they are well-aware of what's going on as I've already called our central hub for more reinforcements. After your capture, we can then decide what we'll do from there about the shipment."
Boba scoffed, his arms still remaining in the air. "You really think a group like that is just going to let you keep a container of their spice withheld here? Think about it for a second, if you just let us continue with our mission, then you won't have to worry about the Pykes coming here and looking for it themselves. It'll save you a ton of problems in the near-future"
The two continued back and forth a bit with their correspondence about the potential scenarios, one of them oblivious to the fact that this was just obvious stalling.
Scarlett looked over towards where Bane was, her eyes meeting with him just as he gave a slight but noticeable enough nod towards her way in a silent understanding. She swallowed, nerves beginning to rise upon realizing that this was going to be a very last ditch effort to get out of their current calamity. Inhaling a deep breath through her nose, she focused on the arm pulled over her neck and waited for just the right moment when there would be enough leeway for her to make a move. Since Boba and the guard first began arguing about the potential compromises of their mission, she had already begun to feel the tightened hold falter just slightly.
She waited. From experience, she should have known the bounty hunter wasn't going to go peacefully. It was never going to be an option.
"Unbelievable! You're all delusional if you think you're just going to walk out of here with-" the guard continued with arrogant conviction, but she was suddenly caught off guard by her hostage slamming a heavy foot down upon her own. She wasn't expecting the much heavier weight of a cybernetic limb, and the pain pulsed from the area of impact.
A stream of curses jumbled out from her mouth, her hand tightening on the weapon in her hand while her other flailed around to try and grab her only means of a bargaining chip once again. Time almost seemed to move in slow motion as she watched through clenched teeth as Scarlett was successfully able to twist herself just a couple steps away.
Now reacting with desperation behind her movements, the guard pulled her arm back forward and fired a shot wildly towards the direction of her escaping negotiation. There was a deafening sound of blaster fire suddenly ringing in her ear and she hardly even registered the louder sound of her own just microseconds after her finger pulled on the trigger.
After the explosion of chaos, there was a long, stagnant pause before the guard faltered a few steps and lifelessly collapsed to the ground. Her weapon fell next to her with a noisy clattering upon hitting the hard ground of the cement floor.
Boba hollered excitedly, punching a fist in the air with excitement. "Not too bad of a shot, old man!" he exclaimed. When he saw things were rapidly beginning to move again after stalling for time, he had barely been able to take out his own weapon. Even in that miniscule timeframe, he was impressed to see that Bane still managed to draw out his weapon from its holster once more and make a very precise shot without resulting in friendly fire.
Scarlett's eyes were wide with displaced shock from what just occurred though. There was a great swarm of warmth that engulfed her stomach after wobbling back a few steps back away from the scene. She immediately fell to her knees, her arms enveloping the area where she supposed she had been hit. Terror immediately seized her, as rational thought was quickly leaving the premises of her mind.
She didn't want to look at the possible injury to assess what just happened. In a state of shock, she stared numbly at the gray floor in front of her as the deafening of her ears slowly came back to and the muffled voices were slowly unveiled with a more comprehensible sense of clarity. She hardly even registered the sound of boots running towards her direction before stopping just in front of her and kneeling down to her eye level.
"Where did ya' get hit?" Bane asked, his words moving at an incredibly fast pace. His eyes quickly scanned over her person, looking for any sort of visual indicators for how drastic things currently were. He wasn't expecting such a lousy, aimless shot to have actually made its mark.
But a lousy shot or not, there was an immediate sense of worry when he saw the woman's hands fly towards her stomach before she dropped to the ground. Wounds to that particular area could still prove to be fatal if the organs were hit critically enough to cause irreversible damage.
"Move yer' damn hands outta' the way", he persisted with a growing sense of urgency.
Eventually he was able to pry the iron-like grip she was using to hold onto the area where the blaster fire had hit. He pulled her hand back, looking down to empty palms to reveal a clean slate. A heavy but relieved sigh escaped through his mouth upon not seeing any immediate blood. He checked over the area still though just to be sure, noticing that the blaster fire singed the outer part of the leather, but it kept the flesh underneath intact from any sort of damage.
Boba, who had been standing a few feet away let out his own small sigh of relief as well. "It's reek leather. Toughest stuff that credits can buy in the galaxy. I learned that from my dad a long time ago", he explained, nodding his head towards the tanned leather hide from the outerwear he let the two borrow for their journey here. "There's a reason why he was one of the best bounty hunters around."
"Guess we owe him one for that, don't we", Bane remarked with a relieved sigh, though it was more of a statement than an actual question. His head still felt like it was running about a million miles per minute with what almost just happened, as the emotional onslaught that nearly suffocated him in just a few short seconds was catching up more quickly than he would have liked.
He looked over his shoulder towards his aspiring pupil. "Go get the ship and I'll finish gettin' what we came here for. We also need to get outta' here before those reinforcements show up."
Scarlett silently observed from her place on the floor as Boba did just as he was ordered and darted across the warehouse floor towards the area they first entered from. Her eyes moved from the young Fett and then down at the other hand still holding onto hers in a rather tight vice.
She knew well enough by now that Bane usually hid away his emotions with an impenetrable mask, but even now she could sense he was quite a bit stressed out with some conflicting thoughts raging a war in his head. It was managing to slip between the cracks and even show on his facial features somewhat given he was looking nowhere and everywhere at the same time. She herself was still coming to terms with how close she was to experiencing a brush to death, but she figured such a thing could be dealt with when they were in a safer place.
He flinched when he suddenly felt a thumb brushing against the calloused skin of his knuckle, bringing him out from his dark and brooding thoughts.
"You look like you could use a drink", she said with an upbeat but tired tone, echoing the very same sentiments he offered to her once upon a time in the beginning of their relationship.
"That's putting it lightly", he replied back with a similarly exhausted voice of his own.