Star Wars: Return of the Sith

2: Enter the Mandalorian

By Nanaki

Above Brentaal

You can't judge a Mandalorian by his armor. Or his complete lack thereof. Though Jerin Danar was not currently wearing any of his people's trademark armor except his boots, people still gave him plenty of room as he moved through the crowd. Located right where the Perlemian Trade Route intersected the Hydian Way, Brentaal Station was as packed as any popular marketplace on Coruscant. Those who saw Jerin coming though, took care to stay well out of his path. He was a bit concerned, since he had purposefully not worn his armor in order to blend in. Then he realized that the jostling of the crowd had caused the heavy repeating blaster strapped to his back to slide into a position where it was rather obvious, even under the cloak he wore. Once he'd worked it back into place between his back and right arm, he blended back into the crowd.

It was all too easy to do, he reflected. This station was a great place to hide in plain sight, which was almost certainly what his quarry was doing here. Even Jerin's trained eyes didn't quite have time to scan everyone in his field of vision before they were out of it. He really could have used the infrared sensors in his helmet to differentiate among species right now, but then, his search was over. His target was sitting at a table with several other females of her species, right at the front of the restaurant where they were having lunch. It was very exposed, and she knew it too, to judge from the way her eyes were darting back and forth. On the other hand, looking like you didn't care whether or not you were noticed was a good way to NOT get noticed. If it wasn't for the poorly concealed anxiety on her face and the darting eyes, Jerin might have thought he had the wrong Twi'lek. That is, if she wasn't purple.

"She'll be easy enough to spot." Korgo the Hutt had told him. "Because she's got purple skin. Have you ever seen a purple Twi'lek before? Didn't think so."

It had surprised Jerin, since Twi'leks were so prismatic compared to most other species. He'd seen white, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, turquiose, and probably a few other shades he'd forgotten about, but never purple. Until now. He drew up short by the restaurant's entrance, pretending to read the menu, while continuing to observe out of the corner of his eye. She was dressed more conservatively than the other Twi'lek women at the table, presumably her friends, who were wearing the usual midriff baring tank tops common to their race. She was wearing a white long sleeved shirt that was very flattering to her figure, not that her figure needed flattery. As Jerin finally felt sure that he had scanned the table to the point where there shouldn't be any nasty surprises for him of the blaster variety, he began to calmly walk forward. Jerin also noticed that she was pretty small. She couldn't have been over 5'3", and she looked kind of delicate.

Her eyes fixed on him almost immediately, and she went rigid as she watched him approach the table. She seemed unusually afraid, especially since he wasn't wearing his armor, and ESPECIALLY since everyone involved in this business seemed to want her alive and unharmed. Though from what Jerin had heard, she wasn't the criminal type, so she probably had never had bounty hunters after her before. In one fluid motion, his three hundred year old, chrome plated blaster slid down his sleeve, into his hand, and into a fixed position about six inches away from her head. "Tenn Sonata, let's do this without a lot of fuss, shall we?" The other women at the table suddenly went still, their eyes converging on the blaster. "That goes for the rest of you too. My blaster's on stun, but even so, getting shot isn't a lot of fun." Turning back to Tenn, he was surprised to see that her eyes remained fixed on his face, not the blaster. That was more than a little unusual.

"Please..." She whispered through clenched teeth, "You can't take me back to them." Jerin wasn't blind to the fact that her eyes were starting to moisten with tears. She was definitely new to this, all right. "They'll kill me."

"No they won't." Jerin said easily. "I know, normally delivering a young lady to a Hutt doesn't bode well, but Korgo's just the middleman on this one. He had a contract from the Bounty Hunters' Guild that he needed someone to take care of, and that contract specifically stated you were to be brought in alive and unharmed. That's the Republic definition of 'unharmed', not the Hutt one."

"They may not kill me right away, but I know they will within a year. I know it." The last sentence was partly a sob.

Jerin scratched his head with his free hand. "I can tell that you really believe what you're saying, but the problem is, I don't care a whole lot. Everyone's got some sob story about why I shouldn't bring them in-" Whatever else Jerin had been about to say left his mind as something tugged his blaster toward the ceiling. As soon as he felt the movement, he fired, but the weapon was already way too high. Far faster than he would have thought she could, Tenn dropped to the floor and aimed a sweeping kick at his legs. He wouldn't have thought her slight frame could generate enough force to knock him over, but he was very wrong. She had both hands and her other knee on the ground, and her aim was perfect. Her leg slammed into the back of his knees, his legs went flying out from under him, and the impact of his back hitting the floor knocked the wind out of him.

He was up on his elbow a split second later, but she was already disappearing into the crowd. Jerin was a fantastic shot, but even so, he didn't want to risk it. Less than ten seconds later, Jerin had forced the breath back into his lungs and was charging after her. He could make out her lekku through the crowd, but they didn't seem to be getting any closer. She could definitely run, and her smaller size gave her the advantage in negotiating the crowd. But then, she made a big mistake. Apparently thinking that her leg sweep had delayed Jerin a lot longer than it actually had, she turned down a smaller and much less crowded hallway. She was probably thinking that she could run through it before Jerin even got to the entrance, but he was no slouch in the running department himself. She took a glance over her shoulder, and almost collapsed in surprise when she saw that Jerin was only about ten paces behind her.

Absolutely sure of his shot now, Jerin raised his blaster... only to stare at his empty hand in astonishment as he heard the blaster clanking to the ground in the hallway behind him. Confident that he could subdue her without it, he continued his charge down the hallway, but his mind was racing. His blaster pointing toward the ceiling back at the restaurant, and now the blaster actually falling from his sure grip... there was only one explanation. It had to be the Force. That DEFINITELY hadn't been in the report. There was no way Korgo was getting her for the stated price now. The Hutt would have to cough up a lot more... if Jerin could ever catch her. It was ridiculous, all things considered. At six feet tall, his stride had to be a LOT longer than hers, and yet he couldn't seem to close the distance any more.

Suddenly, they were at the end of the hallway, and she raced around the corner to the left. Jerin put his left hand on the wall to help him keep his balance on the sharp turn... and almost ran into her before he could stop himself. "What the...?" She was standing still as a statue, her eyes fixed on the two people in front of them. Jerin quickly grabbed hold of her left arm with his right, but she barely seemed to notice. Now that the chase was apparently over, Jerin took a moment to study the two strangers himself.

"Gee, that was quick." Observed a tall Zabrak covered with jagged black tattoos.

"I'd say the Force was definitely on our side for this one." A human with dark hair nodded, a smug smile on his face.

"Tenn, good to see you again!" The Zabrak called genially. Jerin noticed that they both wore black robes and carried lightsabers.

'Korgo, what the hell have you gotten me into?' He wondered. Tenn tensed like she was about to break into a run again, but Jerin tightened his grip. "Don't even think about it." He said, quietly but with an intensity that most people didn't want to argue with.

To his surprise, she just shrugged and snorted. "If you had any sense, you'd be getting ready to run too."

"You there, take your hands off her!" The human ordered as he strode forward.

Jerin reached behind his back with his left arm, coming up with his heavy repeating blaster a second later. "This is MY quarry, Jedi."

"I'm not a Jedi, bounty hunter, I'm a Sith." Seco stopped where he was, his right hand going to his lightsaber.

"Even better." Jerin grinned.

Negian smiled as well. "What an interesting thing to say." He observed. "Tell me, why is that better?"

"Two reasons." Jerin adjusted his aim slightly, so that the blaster was aimed about halfway between Negian and Seco. "First off, the Jedi Order won't be after me if I kill you." Seco snorted derisively. "And second, for the last four years, I've been searching for a battle appropriate for my death."

Negian raised an eyebrow at this, but Seco simply unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. "Well then, you've found it, unless you release her right now."

"Sorry, but someone asked Korgo the Hutt to find this young lady, and he hired me." Jerin shrugged.

"Would it make any difference if I told you Korgo works for us?" Negian wondered aloud.

"Are you ready to pay the bounty then?" Jerin asked.

"Don't be an imbecile." Seco held his lightsaber forward.

Jerin's grin got bigger. "Sith, you have no idea what you're dealing with." With that, he let go of Tenn with his right hand and thrust it forward, making a grasping motion. To the immense surprise of both Sith, Seco's lightsaber rocketed out of his grip and into Jerin's. Jerin's thumb hit the activation switch as if he'd already known where it was, and he was surprised to see that the blade was purple, not red.

The sudden silence was broken by the sound of Negian trying to stifle his laughter, and not succeeding. "Something funny, Negian?" Seco asked in a tight voice.

"Extremely." Negian nodded, a big grin on his face. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." He began to walk forward.

"Hmm..." Jerin looked back and forth between the two, then turned to Tenn. "Are these the people you're afraid Korgo's going to send you back to?" She nodded, though she didn't take her eyes off them. "Then I've got a feeling I'm not getting paid no matter who wins. Here, hold this." To her immense surprise, Jerin handed over his heavy repeating blaster. "Haaaah!" Jerin charged forward, Seco's lightsaber held above his head.

As Jerin drew near, Negian calmly drew out two rods that looked more like elongated writing implements than lightsaber hilts. However, as he flicked on activation switches, a thin blue blade erupted from both ends of each, for a total of four. Then, as Jerin drew within striking range, he began to twirl them rapidly between his fingers, effectively surrounding himself with whirling blue blades. Negian's face still projected amusement as Jerin closed in with a diagonal slash. He easily batted Jerin's attack aside with one weapon, while slashing at his opponent's exposed side with the other. Jerin somersaulted forward, out of the way, then slashed at Negian's ankles with the humming purple blade in his hand.

Negian simply jumped above the attack, then stabbed downward with both of his weapons. However, he found himself being nudged backward by a Force push that was just strong enough to make him miss. As his weapons plunged into the floor of the station, Jerin curiously aimed both feet at Negian, then pushed a button on his belt. The next thing Negian knew, he had flown over sixty feet down the hallway, where he landed with a heavy thud. As he picked himself up, a few spectators who'd thought they'd be safe here turned to run farther down the hall. "Repulsorlift boots." Negian observed dryly as he charged back toward his opponent. "In addition to being a classified Mandalorian technology, they're also incredibly expensive."

As Negian got close again, Jerin aimed a sweeping cut at where his opponent's unique weapons were still sticking up out of the floor, slashing through both hilts. Not missing a beat, Negian drew a more traditional lightsaber as he continued to sprint forward, activating its red blade just in time to cross blades with Jerin. "You must be one of Fett's descendants." Negian concluded as he strained against the Mandalorian's surprisingly strong grip.

"That would explain the complete lack of fear." Seco observed from where he stood with his arms folded, calmly watching the action. "Tell me, what's your name?"

"About time you got around to asking." Jerin said through gritted teeth. "I'm Jerin Danar. I wish I could say it's nice to meet you, but you two are kind of jerks."

"I feel the same about you." Negian admitted, then twisted out of the stalemate to slash at Jerin's legs. Instead of the desperate block he'd been expecting though, Jerin brought his lightsaber down in a vicious two handed chop. When Negian's strike failed to do more than leave a scorch mark on Jerin's boot, it was the Sith's turn to desperately somersault out of the way. "Well, well." Negian sounded a little impressed. "Repulsorlift boots, AND they're made out of beskar? You just have more money than you know what to do with, don't you?"

"Nope." Jerin shrugged. "But if you're going to do something, you might as well do it right." He regretted his brief conversation as the lightsaber he was holding was jerked out of his hand, to go sailing back into Seco's.

"He's got a point." Seco nodded. "So let's kill him already."

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"Thank you for that entertaining diversion. You may die now." - Sesshomaru, Inu-Yasha (manga version)

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(Nanaki's note: Don't be fooled by the fan art, folks. In actual Star Wars canon, I have seen exactly ONE purple Twi'lek. That was the Sith Lord Kopecz, who was part of Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness circa 1,000 B.B.Y. Also, it seemed to me that Kopecz's coloration could have been caused by or been a symbol of his devotion to the dark side, and not his natural color. If it was his natural color, then perhaps the exceedingly rare purple is a sign of a strong connection to the Force...)