Nine Months Earlier
Sera Yarrow can only be sure of two things in her life. The first thing is that after spending her entire life on the small farming planet of Cress, she's developed a sense of wanderlust that lies just beneath the surface of her skin, like an itch she can't quite reach. And no matter how many times she picks up her home and moves it to the next village or the next, always seeking something more, she knows that what she's looking for will only be found among the stars. Which means she has to get off this planet.
The second thing that Sera is certain of, is that being a woman leaves very little opportunities to leave this stifling planet and there are certain things she has to do to get what she wants. On Cress, a woman's duties are to her family. She's obedient, steadfast, and sacrifices her own selfish wants and desires to pursue a family. It's just what's expected of them and no one in hundreds of years has challenged these beliefs. Well, no one that stuck around Cress that is. Around here, a woman's only purpose is to serve and Sera just isn't the kind of woman who can easily assume that role.
She's tried. It just never works out.
Which was why she had left her home at an early age and sought a less strict and controlling way of life. It, unfortunately, did not exist on Cress. Even in the more urban areas, the villages with the busy ports and ships zooming in and out for supply pickups and trading brought her no luck. She's had to find her own way to make a few credits here and there, enough to save up for a way off this podunk planet. It isn't easy work or even honorable, but what can you do?
She's desperate and if that means standing near the stalls in the market square, flirting with the lonely pilots and drunken men with loose purse strings then so be it. And currently, that is exactly what she is doing.
The sun is high overhead and the heat beats down on the bustling market. The day is warm, as it usually is right before the harvest season, calling for thin linen clothes. For someone like Sera, this means good business. Warmer temperatures lead to fewer layers and more skin she could show.
She's standing between the local tavern and one of the stalls that didn't mind her presence. The man running it is much older than Sera and while the older generations usually didn't take too kindly to the sorts of things she did to earn credits, this one's not too bad. He greets her every day with the same short nod of his head as he lays out his wares.
Sometimes, Sera thinks he only lets her stand near his stall because she drums up potential business. Men stumbling out of the tavern tend to notice the amount of skin she has exposed and when they draw near to proposition her, they then notice the various goods on the tables.
She leans back against the cool stone of the wall and curls the thin chain of her necklace around her finger, glancing over the collection of items he's gathered to sell. It's an assortment, like always, from small sacks of dried fruits and vegetables to small mechanical parts used to repair ships. Sera knows nothing about that, though she's always curious about them.
She picks up one of the small metal bolts, rolling it in her palm before looking up to the man standing beneath the canopy of the stall. "Are these important?"
He lets out a snort. "Only if you want to get your ship off the ground in one piece."
She suspects that's what he tells everyone whether it is true or not, so she sets the bolt back down onto the table among the other spare parts. Inside the tavern to her right, sounds of a fight reach the streets and she turns just in time to see a man falling back on his ass right in front of her. He groans and rolls onto his side, wobbling as he does so.
She wonders if he's wasted all of his money on alcohol. Usually men this drunk, she didn't waste her time with. He looks as if he's been drowning himself in ale for the past few days, but she was down to her last trugut and it wouldn't last much longer. She'll have to earn some money whether she wants to or not.
With a sigh, she pushes off the wall and strolls toward the man now sitting up, shaking his greasy head with a groan. He notices her sandals first and follows the length of her legs. His head tilts back and he blinks slow and unevenly at her, a lopsided smile stretching across his chapped lips.
"You a mirage?" He asks. Behind her, the man at the stall snorts again but doesn't say anything so she ignores him.
"Not quite." She holds her hand out for him and he takes it with a sweaty palm. With a slight struggle, he stands to his feet and she lets him take a good look at her from this angle. It used to bother her the way men stare, but she's learned to use it to her advantage by now. And with men this drunk, she could have looked like a Gungan and would attract them. "Are you alright? You took a nasty fall."
"Might need somethin' to make it better," he slurs.
She holds back a grimace as a ship soars over the market. The engines roar upon descent and Sera waits for the quiet before speaking up once more. "Well, my friend sells lots of food that could make you feel better or," she pauses and looks up at him from beneath her lashes, and just like all the other men she's looked at this way, he reacts the same. "Maybe I could help?"
His grin is slow but when its stretched across his face, she can see the yellow stains of his teeth and mentally makes a note to avoid kissing him if she can. Just being near him will be bad enough.
Before he can answer her either way, he's distracted by the sound of someone running quickly down the dusty street. It's a younger man, holding onto the straw hat on his head with one hand while he runs. He stops at one of the carts that sell fabric and says something to the vendor. Whatever he tells them is enough to make the man promptly pack his belongings up and steer the cart down the nearest alley.
Sera frowns and blinks in surprise as the guy skids to a halt in front of them, eyes wide and darting between the three faces. "A bounty hunter just landed-a Mandalorian!"
And with that, he takes off again, ducking into the tavern to warn anyone he can. By the time Sera turns back to her potential job, he's sobered up enough to run in the opposite direction, taking his credits with him. Her shoulders fall, though she can't say she's too disappointed in avoiding the task of having to spend the next several minutes beneath him. The credits would have been nice to have though.
It isn't long before the majority of the hustle and bustle of the market dies completely. People duck into buildings, pack their stalls away before disappearing and soon, she and her silent partner are one of the few left standing in the market square. Her frown pinches her brows together and she crosses her arms over her chest.
"What's gotten into everyone?"
He sniffs, making the thick salt and pepper mustache above his lip twitch. "What do you think?" he asks derisively but not unkindly.
"The bounty hunter?" When he gives only a scoff as his response, Sera presses on. "We've had bounty hunters here before but no one ever reacted quite like this. The entire market just cleared out!"
She waves her hand toward the empty streets and as she does so, she catches sight of someone stepping into the main center of the town. They're much too far away for her to tell if it's a man or a woman, not to mention, their armor covered them from head to toe. Her eyebrows lift and the man in the stall beside her sighs as if this is all just an annoyance that hurts his business.
Sera's too busy watching the bounty hunter. They lift a hand and stare down at something they're holding. She has to admit; this bounty hunter's presence is much more menacing than the last few that had graced this port.
"Those hunters weren't Mandalorians," he says wisely, irritated, and spits onto the ground.
Growing up on farms and only learning the basic functions of a woman's life, Sera didn't have the same opportunities that other women in the galaxy had. She knows how to sew her own clothes, knows how to cook and plant vegetables, but as limited as she is about the rest of the galaxy, even she knows about Mandalorians.
She just never believed she would see one in person. Besides, weren't they all gone anyway?
"Everyone on this planet knows someone who's jumped bail," the man grunts before stepping out from behind his table of goods. He folds the sacks of dried foods into a strip of canvas, packs it away, and turns back to do the same for the rest of his wares. "Not a good day for business. Try again tomorrow."
For the past several months, she's stood next to his stall from sun up to sundown, and not once has he packed away this early. Even in the colder months, even when he had been wracked with cough and could barely talk, he stood in the market, behind the same tables.
Sera frowns and looks at the Mandalorian once more. The sight of him making his way toward their end of the street startles her and she isn't sure if she should abandon the day as well. Then again, what does she have to be afraid of? It's not like she has a bounty over her head.
Now that her only friend has packed his cart and is rolling it away, she watches the bounty hunter move closer. He pauses, checks the tracker in his hands, and lifts his head. She wonders if he notices her standing there or that she's the only person left in the street. If he does, she has no way to know.
What she does know is that he's now the only person in this town who pilots a ship that doesn't just stick to the planets in this system. He has no interest in staying for the harvest season coming up, or making trips to the nearest planets for trade. His travels span multiple systems across the galaxy.
He just might be her only ticket out of here.
That itch beneath the surface of her skin flares up all of a sudden, enough to make her step away from the building and directly into the bounty hunter's path. He stops a few steps from her and though she has no way of knowing for sure if he's looking at her, she can tell. Her face burns beneath his scrutiny and she swallows as her mind reels for the words to say.
"Looking for someone?" She waits for his answer and when it's clear that he isn't going to give her one she crosses her arms over her chest. "You might have a hard time finding them."
"I think I can handle it," his voice is deeper than she expected and sounds strange coming from the helmet. He offers her nothing else and steps to the side.
She does the same and holds her hands up, palms facing him, as she shrugs. "Okay, but I could make it easier for you."
"I'm not interested in spending my credits or my night with you."
Her first instinct is to slap that helmet off his head for being so presumptuous, but she's sure that if she tries, she'd be the only one in pain. Instead, she squares her jaw and stands akimbo. She looks up at him with what she hopes is enough disdain that he can feel it. "Who said anything about spending the night together? I was talking about helping you find your bounty."
"Oh," comes his only response. Sera arches an eyebrow as he shifts from one foot to the other. "I shouldn't have assumed-"
"It's fine. Just keep your head out of the gutter from now on, alright?" The sight of gin tilting his helmet ever so slightly to the side makes the corner of her lips lift in a smirk and she mimics his movements to look him over. "May I see the puck?"
"Why?"
"I've lived all over this planet and I've met quite a few people so I might know the guy. "
"What makes you so sure it's a guy?"
She doesn't try to hide the dramatic roll of her eyes or her heavy sigh before glancing to where the street stretches beyond the two of them. It leads directly out of the town center to the expanse of wheat fields that make up ninety percent of the planet and she's almost certain that those who need to hide from a bounty hunter were well aware of his presence by now. No matter. The longer he stands here, the more he's going to need her help.
"Because," she says with a deep breath. "Women on Cress are unspeakably dull. They hardly ever leave the planet long enough to find trouble. I'd be surprised if your bounty is a woman. Is it?"
"No."
"Didn't think so." Again, she holds her hand out with her palm up. When he looks down at it, she wiggles her fingers for him. "May I see it?"
"As I said, I think I can handle it." He steps around her and she turns as he does, her eyes scanning the edges of his helmet and down to the bunch of fabric around his neck. The edges of his cape are tattered and they brush briefly against her bare shins, promoting her to move.
Sera follows him and can't help the small smile on her lips as he glances back at her. "I'm sure you can handle it but in case you didn't notice, as soon as you landed, everyone in this port that knows someone with a bounty on their head just took off to tell them. You can chase whoever it is all over the planet and back for the next few weeks, or you can accept my help and possibly find them within the day."
The Mandalorian comes to a stop and she keeps the distance between them. He turns to stare at her over his armored shoulder and she smiles sweetly to him. With an irritated sigh, he reaches into a pocket at his side and produces a small cylindrical object before dropping it into her waiting hand. He presses a button on the side and a holographic image of a man's head pops up.
Sera stares at the slowly rotating image. Above the man's head is the name 'Leo Codnor' and she immediately recognizes the surname.
Near the village she had spent her childhood years, there had been a family of recluses not too far from the fields. They rarely came to trade but when they did, there were dozens of them in tow. Of course, she had heard rumors of the family's inbreeding that made each member of the Codnor's look a bit strange.
Their foreheads protruded, their eyes were wide-set and ears sat just a bit lower than an average human. And since the people of Cress didn't usually reproduce with alien species, the only other possibility was inbreeding.
This Leo Codnor definitely belongs to the family. Hopefully, he had returned to his familial home. As much as she loathes the thought of ever going near the village again, she hopes she was right about this. It won't bode well for her to further annoy the only person she's come in contact with over the past few years who can transport her far, far away.
Sera lifts her head and smiles up at the bounty hunter. "Looks like you're in luck. I know his family and where you can most likely find him."
"Where?" He reaches for the puck still in her hands and she pulls back before he can snatch it. The tilt of his helmet tells her he's instantly annoyed but she doesn't let her smile fade.
"Not so fast. My information doesn't come free, you know?"
"How much do you want?" His words sound different as if they're spoken through clenched teeth. As much as she's enjoying playing this little game with him, she knows he's more than capable of doing this on his own if he grows tired of her.
"I don't want credits."
"Then what do you want?"
"Transport. Off this planet and out of this system."
He's shaking his head before the words leave her mouth all the way and Sera notices him start to stretch for the puck once more. She holds it behind her back and twists her body away from him so he can't reach it. Through the narrow, tinted visor she knows he's glaring down at her, and as menacing as he is decked out from head to toe in his well-worn armor, she can't let herself be intimidated by him.
"If you're trying to skip out on your debts, I'm not the best choice to help you do that."
"I don't have any debts," she says, taking a single step back so she isn't having to crane her neck to look up at him. "And I'm willing to pay you for your trouble."
"If you're not running from your debts, then why do you want off Cress so badly?"
It's apparently too much to hope for a no questions asked policy with him, but he's her only ticket off this podunk planet. Sure, she can wait for someone else who might venture to other systems but she's been waiting for the past few years for someone like that. This was her only way and if that meant telling him the truth, then so be it.
"Because," she starts, wondering just how honest she can be with him. "Life for a woman around here starts as soon as she can produce children and ends when she can't any longer. I'm not looking for that kind of life. I don't want to be married to some wheat farmer, pop out ten children in so many years, and die without ever seeing the galaxy. I just want transport out of this system and as soon as we find a decent planet, I'll be out of your hair." She pulls the puck out from behind her back and holds it up in front of her, still out of his direct reach. "Do we have a deal?"
"Fine." He plucks the bounty puck from her fingers and she can't help the smile that stretches across her face. It takes a moment for her to calm the beat of her heart and she clears her throat.
"Good. Now, we should probably find a cruiser. This trip's going to take a few hours."
AN - Alright, I thought I would take this time to explain exactly how I plan to lay the chapters out for this story. I chose the name Symmetry because I want to do something I've never done before.
And that is, each chapter will be alternating between the past and the present. I really want to juxtapose the relationship between Sera and Mando from the past to what it will grow into during the present. It will be fun to contrast who they were to who they are now next to one another instead of laying out each one linearly. What I'm interested in doing is something a bit different than what I'm used to and (hopefully) it will be interesting to read this way as well!
Thanks again for reading and I hope you'll come back for the next chapter!