Panic washed over her, Del was gone, disappeared; she ran from room to room frantically searching for him, opening the doors to every room, trying every window, they were all locked. Every window was obscured and barred. Nothing she tried opened. He was gone.

Essie woke, drenched in sweat. She pulled the bed sheets off, then shivered as the cold air hit her body, listening intently for Del's alarm.

She tried to slow her breathing, so she could hear his. There it was. Despite that she pulled on a woolly top and opened the door peeping in to check. He was sleeping peacefully and didn't seem to have the sniffles like she had; she swallowed tentatively, her throat feeling raw and backed out silently.

She shuffled to the kitchen for a shig, hoping the hot drink would help soothe it. Another hour and she would need to get up. She put on the kettle, automatically reaching up for the shig.

"I'll have one if you're making it." Kom'rk's voice came from the corner. There was always someone up at night, either here, or wandering around. "Can't sleep?" He asked.

"Nightmare and a sore throat."

"Osik! Want to talk about it?"

She shrugged, knowing where it came from but she was also worried about Maze.

"I lost Del."

"That one again?"

She nodded.

"I have one where I lose my brothers. The Kaminoans take them away one by one."

He had never shared that one before.

"Sorry."

"Not your fault."

"Are you going into Keldabe tomorrow?"

"Yes." He snuffled.

"Won't it be dangerous?"

"We'll keep the helmets on most of the time. Do you want to come?" He saw her frown, "No one asks a mandalorian to remove their helmet, not if they want to keep their own head."

"No, I think I might just sleep and I haven't got any armour."

Kom'rk sneezed.

The kettle whistled.

.

The next morning Kal walked outside to get some fresh air to clear his nose; it had stopped dripping like a leaky tap and was now bunged up.

He took some deep breaths and finally his nose cleared. Then it started dripping again.

He watched the two little hurricanes rush around the yard playing some kind of chasing game. The older lad was running after Kad and letting him win —just. So it wasn't obvious. They looked like they had been friends from birth.

He couldn't help the smile that spontaneously appeared on his face despite what was happening in the wider galaxy..

"Ba'buir!" Kad screeched in excitement. The other boy—Del— stopped dead and looked away. Kal picked up Kad, whose arms grabbed at his neck. He settled him.

"You alright ad'ika?" He asked the other boy,

"Yes sir."

"You sure?" He looked a lot like his mother, nit the shabuir who fathered him. They had found out about him.

The lad looked at his feet and rubbed a circle in the dirt with his right one.

"I miss my ba'buir, Nat and Sol. They got left behind."

Maybe it was that virus he'd been injected with, or maybe not but Kal's eyes watered. He blinked the resulting tears away.

"Do you like candied warra nuts?"

"Never had them sir."

"Well you're in for a treat. Come on!"

He held his hand out for the young lad, who hesitated and then grabbed it; he closed his hand. It brought back memories of Kamino for a split second.

Yes, he had done the right thing letting them stay. Now he needed to get ready for Keldabe.

.

Maze, Spar and Sull

"So was this always the plan, get your jabs and then move on?" Asked Maze, as he and Sull arranged everything in the small ship the two bounty hunters used. His nose was blocked, he needed to take something but didn't have time. He hated these viruses.

"It's a job Maze, it's what we have to do now to survive! You can't get by in this galaxy without credits. This isn't SOB anymore." Spar replied, never taking his eyes off the cockpit panel.

Maze tried to relax; he had to do something, not just sit about. He had choices now. He didn't have to follow Zey or Kal; Zey had said he could try anything he wanted. He wanted to be with Essie but not living with Skirata.

He didn't know how to get back to what they had on Coruscant.

Spar didn't initiate any further conversation until he had set the navcom and they entered hyperspace, then he turned his chair around to face them.

He pulled out a small com unit and a bounty fob.

"These are the targets." The blue figures rose from the unit. It was a young woman and an older man.

The names and amounts highlighted in basic beneath them; the 3D figures rotated. Maze committed them to memory.

"Shysa know about this?" Asked Sull, warily. "There's usually confirmation from him on bounties, since the Empire moved in."

"No. None of his business."

Sull looked uneasy about that. "Thought he had to…."

"That's just him flexing his muscles."

Maze watched the two of them. There was something not being said. Sull had told Maze that Fenn Shysa had to know about all Bounties now, so there was no overlap with what he was doing in the background against the Empire. He didn't trust the Empire and wanted them off Mandalore, whilst pretending to be amenable to them. They had a foothold in Keldabe, building a garrison there and Maze wasn't sure if Essie actually knew that yet. He must tell her when he gets back.

"I'm not dancing to Shysa's tune anymore. He's the Mandalor but this is business."

Maze leant back, he had never met Shysa but he had a good reputation, from what he heard, reluctantly becoming Mandalor. Sull seemed to think highly of him too. He was even more uneasy about Spar but he was in this now and had given his word.

.

They traced the bounties to Ord Mantell; Maze back tracked where they had been, Coruscant, Alderaan and Pantora. They looked to be running away from the Empire but there was nothing to indicate that was where bounty came from and Maze hadn't known the Empire to use Bounty Hunters—so far. They still had all those clones with Fett genes to chase down fugitives, he thought they were using them.

This didn't add up.

They entered Ord Mantell airspace and easily passed ATC, no questions asked. That was lax.

Maze was uneasy; he had not wanted to come to this place when he was on the run but as they walked around the city, in their Mandalorian armour people avoided them, made space for them to pass. Mandalorians of all types had a reputation, some worse than others. He had not been blind on Kamino, knowing what Priest and Rieu were doing until Fett put an end to it and they had been in Keldabe before they left.

Maze and his brothers walked in a particular way, when wearing armour, one that said 'don't mess with me'.

Spar took them down an alley to a bar.

Maze had been to some of the worst places in Coruscant and this was on par with them; refuse blowing along the alley. A few rodents helping themselves. They walked down the entrance steps and inside, unchallenged. The level of conversation dipped and a few made an early exit but no one challenged them inside.

Maze spotted the trandoshan at the end of the room. There was something about the way she looked and acted. He would bet his life on it, that she was the owner and their contact.

She ambled over, still looking dangerous, despite the attempt at congeniality. She owned the room.

"Well boys. Three of you! That's a surprise." She addressed Spar. Maze activated his 360 degree vision. Everyone was desperately trying to ignore them, looking at their drinks or their tables. The conversation was subdued; a Pantoran made a hasty exit out of the back door but they weren't after him.

"So Spar. I don't want any trouble. Here's the Intel you asked for."

She knew his name.

"So what do I call you?"

"You don't." Maze interjected before either of the others could.

"Maze?" Spar said warningly, over their personal com.

"I don't trust her." He replied.

"Neither do I but we know where we stand with her, the two of us. We have history."

He addressed the trandoshan.

"My brother's unsure of you for the moment. They don't know you."

"Clever boys. You'll go far."

She scraped a claw down Maze's breast plate. His finger twitched on his blaster.

"Especially you."

She paused looking straight at his visor, as if she could see his eyes. He had never liked trando's.

"It's been pleasant dealing with you boys but I still have a living to make. Be seeing you."

She ambled away to the back of the room and through a door.

"What have we got?" Asked Sull. The Intel flashed up on their HUD.

"Their last known whereabouts."

It was an isolated farmhouse.

If they thought they were safe there. They were mistaken.

.

Kyrimorut.

Essie looked up to see Kom'rk balancing a Caf and datapad carefully, as he walked toward her. She shuffled along the bench to give him room to sit.

"How was Keldabe?"

He shrugged, she trued again.

"Jind is getting good at carpentry isn't he?" She rubbed her hand along the grain of the wood, sanded and polished to sheen. His first attempt at furniture.

"If you say so. Though I didn't think you were an expert on that, as well." His retort was so sharp it felt like being slapped in the face by the Force.

She hesitated for a few seconds trying to read his face. It was blank.

"I'm sorry. Have I done something to upset you?"

He grunted.

She stood, ready to leave. His hand rested firmly on her thigh stopping her moving.

"No. Stay. It should be me that's apologising—I'm sorry." He looked at the floor, he'd had a momentary lapse and she didn't deserve to be on the end of it.

She sat back down giving him a second chance. Kom'rk was normally cheerful, although sometimes she guessed it was forced. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

Silence.

She sensed nothing, like looking into a black hole.

"Perhaps later?" She offered.

Kom'rk looked at the floor.

"I was sent away for months at a time, more than two years during the war, when I rarely saw my brothers or Buir. A couple of them bothered to find me and visit. Buir never did, not until later, near the end. I didn't see any one of them for a whole year."

"I can't imagine how hard it was."

"All I ever had was Kal and my brothers for eight years before Geonosis. Then after that Battle, after….. everything, they were going to chill us down, put us in stasis. Do you know what that's like?"

He continued, not giving her a chance to reply, "No, of course you don't."

She didn't know what to say; Maze had mentioned stasis but glossed over the effects but she didn't like the idea, trapped in your own body.

"But you're here now."

"Yes and I don't know what to do, how to fit in."

"It's difficult..."

He interrupted her, "All Buir wants is for us to have a normal life but what's normal. Normal for us is fighting, surviving."

"Is that why you came to Fradian?"

"Sort of. I needed to do something."

"Perhaps you just need more time to adjust." She wasn't sure what to say but her thoughts kept going back to Kina Ha, what she had said.

"I think Buir asked me to talk to you because he thought we might get together." He smiled.

"Are you asking?" Essie grinned, knowing he wasn't but trying to lighten it.

"I wouldn't wish me, on anyone."

"No? I put up with you." She tried to keep it light.

"You put up with Maze. The Alphas are nearly as bonkers as we are. Look at Spar."

She tried not to think of him. He worried her.

"You're not bonkers." She didn't like what that implied.

"No, just defective."

"Not defective. Different."

"Same thing to them. They were going to euthanize us."

"Who?"

"The Kaminisii. Anybody who was not 'their' normal was terminated. But they may be right."

"That's not right but they actually did that?" Essie was incredulous even though she'd heard this before.

"Regularly."

Essie thought of little boys, looking like Kad, who even though they all looked the same, were dying for no other reason than being different.

"Have you seen my brother's gloves, the grey ones?" Continued Kom'rk.

"Jaing? Yes."

"We had another visitor from Kamino before Kina Ha, a scientist; she wanted to terminate us when we were children but she died here."

Essie went quiet, that grey was a specific shade. She wondered if Kina Ha knew, or guessed.

"We didn't kill her, she committed suicide but my brothers exacted a form of revenge." He looked into the distance as he said that.

Essie didn't know what to say. She knew a little of what Maze was capable of but the Nulls….what Kom'rk described was a whole different revenge.

She couldn't believe she actually felt safe here and yet she did. What did that say about her?

"You're safe with us. Kad likes Del. Buir likes you. I like you, so does Las'ika and Bes'ika and Ordo won't upset Bes'ika. Maze is a good vod if a bit uptight, so Prudii likes him and A'den likes your bread. You're safe."

Kom'rk put his arm around her shoulder.

"Thanks for that. It was good to get that off my chest. Prudii was winding me up."

She smiled uneasily, wondering how close Kina Ha was to actually understanding all these men's problems.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Essie sipping her caf until the mug was dry.

"So this Sergeant, Wad'e Tay'haai, who's coming over tonight. He's a historian?" The kitchen was in full flow preparing for a big meal tonight, with visitors.

"And mercenary."

"What is it with Mandalorians and their two jobs? Mij is a Doctor and Mercenary and now a Historian and mercenary."

In truth she was looking forward to talking to him.

"Multi talented, that's what we are."

Kom'rk leant back. He debated about telling her what happened in Keldabe, with Dred Priest and Mij killing him but that wouldn't help anyone. They would deal with that when the time came.

.

The room was full to bursting with every one sitting down for a dinner; the Kyrimorut clan were not solely responsible for the food and drink. Everyone had brought something.

One of their visitors was Tay'haai, he walked in, cutting quite a figure with his traditional Mandalorian hunting spear, bevii'ragir, as well as his purple Mandalorian armour.

The table should have groaned under the weight of food but Essie couldn't cope with the Tiingilar, it was too spicy. She'd had two, maybe three spoonfuls before the tears started and she jumped up to get a cloth to wipe her eyes and blow her nose.

She sat back down, eyes puffy, mouth and nose smarting.

"Here! Try this!" Mereel laughed and handed her a beaker of blue milk, "it will help."

She looked at Kom'rk.

"It will." He confirmed.

She sipped it slowly, letting it slip down her throat and watched as everyone sat eating and laughing, including Jilka, she was with Corr now. Essie forced a smile, she was feeling lonely, missing Maze. If her eyes watered now, it didn't matter, they'd think it was the spices.

Once the meal was finished, she left as soon as she could for some fresh air, stopping and leaning against the Veshok tree.

"You alright? That tiingilar was especially spicy." Besany followed her out. She mirrored her position. "It's quite nice here isn't it? Peaceful."

"Yes." The lump in Essie's throat stopped her from saying much more.

"Missing Maze?"

"Yeah." Her breath hitched when it came out.

"I know what you mean. They sort of get under your skin, the clones, don't they?"

"Sort of."

"Ordo was away for months at a time after we first met. I think I told you before. I would never know when he was returning. I always had a conservator full of food, everything he liked—just in case." She laughed nervously.

"I couldn't believe how much Maze ate, when he first stayed for dinner. He nearly cleared me out."

Besany laughed again.

"Yes. It's astonishing how much. It's their metabolism."

"I know. Is it true about Uthan —the cure?"

"It is. They've been looking for it for over a year now. That's why she's here."

Besany omitted the fact that they had sprung her from prison to get her help.

"I daren't hope."

"None of us dare, but she's the best apart from the Kaminoans, and Mereel, he knows nearly as much as she does. The Nulls are all very clever."

"Is she near to finding it?"

"Mereel seems to think so."

"Maze never really mentioned the Nulls. We spent a lot of time studying documents and then…"

Besany sniggered, "And then….yes. I know what you mean. But Maze is good with Del isn't he. I've seen him."

"He is. I was lucky."

There was silence.

"Ordo wants children, I think, but I'm not sure. It isn't something that I ever really considered before. He's not pushing but it seems to be a thing here. To have children young. But I'm not that young and I'm not sure if I'm ready."

"You're never ready. I was young when I had Del, it was unplanned and it was hard, even with family helping." Essie paused now, "I don't know if I want another child."

"Especially now."

"Especially now. The Empire."

The two women went silent.

"Kina wants to talk Mandalorian history with Wad'e. I thought you'd be interested? Ordo, Kom'rk and Mereel are tidying up." Besany broke the silence.

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it."

"It was good talking to you. There's no one else ….."

"What about Jilka?"

"Not the same. She doesn't understand."

"Oh. I suppose…"

"I was lucky, Ordo got me off Coruscant. You were …it must have been very difficult for you." Besany deftly changed the subject.

"It was."

"But Maze went back for you."

"Yes but.."

"He went back for you!" She reiterated.

"Yes. He did."

But he's gone away again.

"Shall we go in?" asked Besany.

The dining room had emptied, except for the last few, even Ny was listening. Wad'e was playing his Bes'bev, a sad, haunting melody. Its notes hanging in the air until he produced the next one. Essie closed her eyes to listen, then he stopped and eerily quiet. Until Besany started clapping, Essie and the rest joined in.

Wad'e bowed his head.

"Thank you Ad'ike."

He put his Bes'bev down and sat with a Tihaar, courtesy of Rav.

"So ma'am how old are you exactly?" He asked the Kaminoan.

Kina Ha on her part laughed and told him, you could see the surprise in his face despite him trying to hide it.

"I do like the reaction that brings." Her eyes crinkled, showing she was smiling

"You ma'am, have a mischievous streak."

Essie swore Kina Ka's eyes crinkled again at that; the Kaminoan liked shocking people, catching people off guard and here she had the perfect audience. Essie listened intently to the discussion. It was more like a tutorial from university, until they reached the era of the Fett clones.

"I cannot imagine what my people were thinking when they agreed to clone sentients for profit, and then an army. The sheer hubris of it all."

"Everyone's got some serious dirt in their history, ma'am. In the days of the Old Republic, we Mandalorians wiped out at least one sentient species just to prove that we could—the Cathar. Are we ashamed of that? I hope so. But if anyone tries to wipe us out again, I feel better knowing we once did something to deserve our fate. It's easier to take than just being spotless victims." [1]

Essie and Besany were still sitting there listening to the Mandalorian historian and the oldest being she had ever known. Essie found it fascinating, they had discussed this before but she had been alive centuries. Besany looked relaxed, just soaking it all in. Essie wanted to know more.

"What was it like then? How did the Mandalorians fit in with the Republic?"

She only ever had books and documents to read and they said only so much.

Kina Ha laughed.

Wad'e looked surprised when he heard it; he too was used to the scientists on Kamino.

"Oh my dear, much the same as now. We seem to be destined to make the same mistakes over the millennia. And I wouldn't wish your men dead. Now we must look forward to help them."

.

Ord Mantell

They found the isolated farmhouse easily, broke in but it was empty.

Spar kicked a packing box petulantly.

Maze resisted commenting on their informants' reliability, or lack of it.

"Just got an update." Spar announced, "they've left the planet an hour ago.

"Any idea where?"

"We have some idea. They have a tracker on their ship courtesy of our informant. Oya!"

Maze hesitated, increasingly uneasy about this contract.

"You coming ner vod?"

"'Lek." Maze muttered and followed them out of the deserted building.

.