A/N: Okay, another chapter up, I'm pretty happy with the speed at which I'm updating this story. The reviews do help me update faster, they motivate me and get much blood pumping.

On another note, I would like to tell anyone reading this, that if you ever have to go to work around a place where they operate a forklift, make sure you keep your wits about you. I got hit by a fully loaded forklift at work, which was about ten tons of steel and stone. Lucky for me, I only got knocked down and got some scraps and pulled calf muscle for it. But it could of been a serious accident, so always be aware of your surroundings.

Well enough of my own personal woes, onto the story.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.


Chapter 3

Ezra had his lightsaber out and ready, but not on. He wasn't about to let Dral know what he was, Jedi were among the most sought after prizes for a bounty hunter, in both prestige and pay. Of course if that thing got close enough he wouldn't be left with much of a choice.

Before Ezra could make another move however, he felt a vice like grip on his shoulder. Turning his head he saw Dral stepping forward.

"Get behind me, I've got this one."

Ezra wasn't sure if it was bravery or arrogance, but he didn't have much of a problem letting Dral try his hand on JV-FR13. Warching him get a beating might make up for all the crap he said.

"So, you're the big bad monster of Lothol!" Dral said as he marched forward fiddling with his wrist gantlets. JV-FR13 just looked at him dead in the face as the hte distance closed between them. Dral spit on the group, "You don't look so tough." They were now about forty feet part now and JV-FR13 still hadn't made a move.

"Ezra we can't just let him..." Sabine began before she was cut off by a loud screeching that drowned out her voice, followed by a blinding light.

Ezra glanced back to Dral, he had fired a flare or rocket right over JV-FR13's head. The silent killer watched it, apparently immune to the deafening noise and blinding light.

Sensing something, Ezra grabbed Sabine and turned her away around just as the projectile exploded with a defining bang. It was a type of flash bang, like the one he had used on Ezra.

"Not done yet!" Dral shouted, and Ezra thought he heard the ring of laughter in his voice, followed by what sounded like two small object's zipping through the air.

Looking up again at JV-FR13, Ezra notice two long metal darts in JV-FR13's eyes. The thing had dropped its blade to reach up to remove the obstructing objects. Before he could however, they discharged an enormous amount of electricity.

It's muscles seized up and it started twitching in a particularly unpleasant manner. After they discharged their entire charge, the thing fell to the ground in heap, and Dral let out a hoarse laugh.


"You all had be thinking this thing was some sort of monster!" He neared shouted walking up to the body, kicking it once. "I just made me a big ol' payday!"

Sabine had been moderately impressed with the quick response, but Dral was doing something incredibly stupid.

"Dral get away from him, we need to go now."

Dral turned back around to face her "He's dead, what are you so afraid of? Don't tell me you're scared of corpses!"

"He's not dead!" Ezra shouted.

Dral, with a confused look on his face, turned just in time to see JV-FR13 rise, and drive it's blade into his stomach, cutting through his armor like butter. Dral didn't make a noise as it happen, except for a gasp of shock.

JV-FR13 pulled the blade out quickly enough to cause sparks to fly from where the metal of the blade meet Dral's armor. Dral feel onto his back clenching his stomach.

Ad JV-FR13 raised the blade to finish the job, he was meet with a barrage of blaster fire, causing him to look up from his target. Sabine had opened fire, distracting him.

Dral took this moment to fire six more spikes in JV-FR13, then fired off on his jetpack, sending him flying fast and low over the ground back to where Ezra and Sabine stood.

"Oh damn, he got me good, we need to get to my ship." he gasped out as the spikes let loose a much larger electrical charge than before, again causing the thing's muscle to seize up.

He tried to get up and walk but collapsed "You two need to help me, we ain't getting anywhere fast if I can't walk."

Sabine and Ezra didn't argue, they knew that they couldn't fight JV-FR13 and running would only last so long, they needed to get to a ship. They each got under his arms and hoisted him up.

"Hold on." Sabine said, bending over and putting something on the ground. "Okay let's go."


"You..." Ezra gasped as they ran "Are really heavy."

"Shut up, it's not much further, we just need to get to the ship, then." Dral was cut off by a loud explosion coming from behind them.

"What the hell what that?" Dral shouted as loud as he could.

"'The Shape' just walked onto one of my bombs, or at least walked near it, that should buy a few more minutes."

"Good...good, listen I'm fadin' here, I'm not gonna make it at this pace."

The sudden change in attitude surprised, was he telling them to leave him to save themselves, but that line of thought made it so Ezra couldn't help but think of him leaving Tyber to that thing, and his guilt came back in full force. "We're not leaving you here, we need you to get to that ship." Ezra said with as much authority as he could.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not sayin' leave me, I'm sayin' pick up the pace! I'm not dyin' on your account!"

Ezra groaned and mentally noted he needed to stop assuming thing's and jumping to conclusions. He also reconsidered his previous statement about leaving him behind.

"Dral." Sabine said as she started to pick up the speed, apparently agreeing with him on at least the need to move quicker. "A piece of advice, don't aggravate the people carrying you to safety when and unstoppable murder machine is chasing you."

Dral coughed up a glob of blood and said "Noted."


The ship was, in Ezra's opinion, the sorriest excuse for a ship he had ever soon. It looked like a mongrel of several different ship designs and none of them a recent model.

The ship also didn't look particularly well maintained, pieces looked rusted and like they might fall off.

Dral limped up the ramp, with Sabine and Ezra following him as tried to get into the cockpit, but slumped to the floor.

"One of you is gonne need to fly this thing, I need to get this off." He gasped out, pulling off her armor. "Which one of you is the better pilot?"

Ezra knew it was Sabine, who didn't even answer and just jumped into the controls.

"Okay you." Dral said pointing to Ezra "Get me some Bact patches, under the co-pilot chair."

Ezra did as he was told, and quickly retrieved the patches as the ship took off. Ezra looked out hte window and saw 'The Shape' just staring at them, not running up to the ship, just staring, and Ezra was certain that it was looking right at him.


"Oh, that was close." Dral muttered to himself as he climbed into the co-pilot chair. "Guess you folks weren't so full of it, that fella should of lived through the spikes in the eye's let alone the shock."

Sabine snuck a look at Dral to see where he had been stabbed. He was lucky it hadn't more to the center of his body, otherwise it would of likely of been instantly fatal. He'd need proper treatment however, the patches wouldn't fix major internal damage on their own.

"Checking out my body?" Dral said as he closed his eyes and reclined in his seat, relaxing.

Sabine flushed red, this guy didn't know when to stop. "No, I was looking to see where you got hit, your going to need proper treatment if that thing hit any organs."

"Not necessary." he said sighing out like he was getting ready to sleep.

"I know you want to sound tough, but if..."

"I know what's wrong with me." He tapped his temple "Implant in my eye, gives me real time data on my body's condition, all I was in danger of was bleeding out, the Bacta is doing its work, I'm just gonna need a few days to recuperate."

This comment gave Sabine a bit of relief, she wasn't looking forward to trying to find a doctor to treat this guy, although she supposed they could of taken him to the Vet if they had to."

"That's how you knew he was following us!" Ezra exclaimed loudly and making Sabine and Dral jump. He smirked "Sorry, but I was wondering how you knew he was there before you saw him, your implant can track bio signatures can't it?"

Dral opened his eyes and looked at Ezra then closed them again "Yeah, it can, I'll tell you it comes in handy. But that fella back there, his signature was off, that's what spooked me. Normally it differentiates between sentient and non-sentient species, with him it was all over the place."

Sabine raised an eyebrow "You figured all the out from him having a vitals' monitoring implant?"

Ezra shrugged "I've heard about people modifying them to pick up on other signatures other than the user's, real popular with Bounty Hunters to help them find hidden targets."

Ezra didn't tell her, nor would he while Dral was around, that he had briefly suspect Dral was force sensitive.

"So Dral, we're here on the ship, where is your equipment that you think might be able to bring that thing down?" Sabine said without turning to look at Dral.

Eye's still closed, Dral lazily gestured over his shoulder. Ezra stood up from his seat and walked to the wall. "There's nothing here, Dral I think you've lost to much blood."

His voice at ease, he was clearly drifting off to sleep he said "Hit the wall twice..." with that his voice trailed off and his breathing became slow and even, he had clearly just fallen asleep.

Trading glances with Sabine, Ezra shrugged and banged on the wall twice. The result was near instant and seven different panels flipped over reveling several weapons caches.

"What the..." Ezra stammered, a bit surprised.

"Yeah common bounty hunter and smuggler tactic, hidden panels and holds, that way if their searched they can hide anything their not supposed to have." Sabine said taking a quick look at the weapons.

"Ooookaaay, but what was he talking about, theirs like twenty different kinds of blasters here."

Sabine gave a quick look before returning to the controls. "I don't know Ezra, I can have a look when we land, but we might have to wait for Dral to wake up."

"Well let's wake him up now." Ezra said making his way to the sleeping Dral.

"No!" Sabine shouted taking her hands off the controls for moment making the ship dip.

"Why not!?" Ezra stepped back, afraid he had made a misstep.

"I like him like this."

"Like what?" Ezra looked at him, then to Sabine.

"Quiet."


The rest of the trip went in largely in silence. Awkward silence, and Ezra felt like it was squeezing his chest. At least when Dral was awake, there weren't any awkward silences, awkward comments and conversations, but at least it moved on from whatever he was saying fairly quickly.

"So...what did you think of..." Ezra stammered trying to get the conversation going, looking around the cockpit for something. They only thing he saw besides the weapons was Dral. "How Dral handled that thing?"

Sabine looked from Ezra to the still sleeping Dral "Okay, don't tell him this when he wakes up, but I was pretty impressed on how quickly he thought of that plan, didn't work and he got himself stabbed, but still pretty quick thinking."

Ezra sighed and didn't say anything, but silently agreed. Obnoxious and rude as he was, Dral had made a pretty impressive plan up on the fly. Of course he completely ruined anything he'd done by walking up to the thing and kicking it.

He looked over at Dral, and something seemed off "Sabine...Do people normally sweat that much when they sleep."

Sabine took a look at Dral, he was completely soaked in sweat, and the face that had been relaxed when he drifted off.

"He's probably just feeling the pain from his injury, don't worry to much about it, we're home."

Ezra looked out of the window and saw the Ghost come into view. They had only been gone half a day, but it felt much longer to him. This whole deal was going to drive him up the wall.


"That is the sorriest excuse for a ship I have ever seen." was Zeb first comment as it landed across from the Ghost. Ezra and Sabine came down the loading ramp, with the Bounty Hunter noticeably absent. "Where is Dral?"

"On board sleeping, we ran into the "Shape" on our way to his ship. Dral gave him a good hit, then it gave him one back, except he doesn't have any super healing factor, so he's down for the count right now." Ezra said.

Kanan walked up to the ship, looking it over, then to Sabine. "We, you obviously got away, so where's his equipment?"

"Well he's got a lot of stuff on there, I can take a guess at what he means, but it's be better if he just showed us."

"Well go wake him up, the sooner we get set up, the sooner we can get this over with." Kanan said.

Sabine sighed and turned around and went up the ramp.


Dral was still in his chair, but Sabine knew something was wrong the moment she saw him. He still asleep, but he appeared to be perspiring even more now, and he was jerking around in the chair. His arms, legs and head all going at random intervals. His face looked like he was being tortured, he was frowning and was having muscle spasms. He water muttering in his sleep to. It was truly disturbing, she was wondering that maybe JV-FR13 had poisoned him when it stabbed him, or else he had some kind of infection.

Whatever it was, she really didn't want to go near him, but she steeled herself and went to do it.

Then she heard the whimpering. At first she didn't know where it was coming from, then she realized it was coming from Dral. It didn't sound at all like his deep and gravelly voice, it sound like, almost like a crying child.

Dral was over six feet tall and built with incredibly thick muscle with a number of scars on his body, he just looked like a tough thug, the site of him and the sounds he was making was incredibly unnerving.

Shaking her head, clearing these thoughts, she needed to get down to business. "Dral." she called, probably not as loud as she should of.

"No." he whimpered out, still not awake. "Please." he pleaded to apparently someone who wasn't there.

"Dral!" she said more force. Still nothing. She really didn't want to touch him, he had been perspiring and looked dirty. But she was really uncomfortable she wanted get out of the ship fast.

Walking foreword she put her hand on his shoulder and shook him as she said "Dral!

The response was instant. He shot up and grabbed her by the throat, putting a knife to her temple, his eyes wide and full of fear. He only shouted "No more!"

"Dral it's me!" she shouted, not knowing how this would help but she was certain he thought she was someone else.

He blinked a couple of times, and his ragged breathing evened out and he let her go and put the knife away. "Don't ever wake me up like that!" he near shouted at her. "What do you want!"

"What the hell was that about!" Sabine didn't need and answer to the question. Dral wasn't suffering from an infection or poisoning, if he was, his symptoms wouldn't fade so quickly when he woke up. No he had something a large number of soldier had. She knew someone with Post Traumatic Stress disorder when she saw it.

"I wanted the equipment you were talking about." she said backing up from him, he still looked agitated.

"Right, right, here, right here." he said going over to the weapons cache and pulling off one of the bulkiest blasters she had ever seen. The barrel was several times thicker than a standard blaster rifle and it appeared to have a grenade launcher under slung on the barrel. It also looked patch worked and have several tubes hanging out.

Not wanting to set him off again, but needing an explanation she asked "What is that thing."

Dral didn't answer right away, but looked at her for a moment "I'll show you all, come on..."He grunted and grabbed in injury. Sabine went forward to help him up, but he batted her hand away. She looked offended but didn't say anything. Dral spoke again "When you..came in here, did you...what did you hear me say? I mean did I say anything while I was asleep?"

His face betrayed fear, fear of someone who had a secret they did not want getting out. "Not really, just 'no' and 'please' but nothing else." she answered truthfully.

He didn't seemed pleased at this, but he shrugged and walked down the ship ramp.

Sabine was left alone and confused.


"This here." Dral said, patting the oversized blaster "is my go to tool of choice when I need to capture someone alive, or at least it would be if it worked."

Sabine came jogging down the ramp as Dral explained the weapon.

"It can immobilize pretty much anything in the galaxy, problem is, once it stops moving, it's probably never gonna start again." He squeezed the trigger and instead of a blaster bolt firing as was expected, a mist shot out in a spread pattern about forty feet in front of him.

Sabine was confused at first, but as the vapor cleared, she saw all the grass that had been touched by the fog had iced over. It wasn't a blaster at all, it was a type of cryo-gun, it would freeze the target.

"And for good measure" with a loud "thump" he launched a grenade out that exploded and relased the same mist, freezing anything it touched.

"Problem with it." Dral said as he set it down "It doesn't work like it' supposed to, everything I've ever tried it one dies from the cold, but given our little psycho paths...unique abilities, I don't see that as a problem."

It made perfect sense, when they had brought it to Lothol, it had been frozen and inactive. If they could freeze it, then they could...she didn't know what exactly, but they could at least remove him from Lothol, maybe drop him on Hoth or something, let him stay frozen for the rest of eternity.

Glancing to the rest of the crew of the Ghost, Sabine could tell they were all thinking the same thing as her, a good idea in theory, but they'd have to wait and see if it really worked.

"Once he's frozen" Dral said " I can keep him on ice until I take him to the proper Imperail authorities,...or we can hit him with a shovel or something, I don't much care so long as I get paid." Dral finshed and picked up the cryo-gun and went back onto his ship. "I need a few days to recover, after that, it'll be time to go hunting."

"We can't wait that long." Hera shouted after him "That thing it out there killing people now."

"Well, you arin't gonna do it without me, that think tried to make a pin cushion out of me, I'm the one who's gonna get him, not any of you. Unless you got another plan, in which case we do it my way."

No one said anything to this, and Dral went back onto his ship.

The rest of crew looked annoyed, and Sabine was feeling it as well, but it was mixed with a sense of pity for Dral, after the state she saw him on his ship. That man had a dark secret, and she was more than a little curious about it.

From her limited interaction with him he seemed to have two personalities. The cocky, crude and rude bounty hunter, the one everyone saw and the one he wanted them to see. But she thought she saw a glimpse the real him in the moment on the ship. A man with some serious demons, ones he went to fairly great lengths to cover up.


A/N: Okay tell me what you think. Please review and give me your honest opinion.

I won't beg for reviews and I won't stop writing if I don't get them, but it is nice to know people are reading my work, and it is also nice to get some real feed back.