So it seems as though I may worried those who enjoy Rory's character. Out of all the trends in my reviews, I've seen this the most, so it looks as though I have to explain myself.
I'm a firm believer in sticking to character personality. Fan fiction or not there are certain lines one must never cross when dealing with well established characters, or rather in Boba Fett's case, ones that have often conflicting sources of canon.
Boba has a contingency for everyone he meets, that's how he's survived this long. Think about how often he's been betrayed, how often he's had to hold his own against powerhouses. Rory is an unknown variable, a very powerful unknown variable and Boba hates unknown variables.
Being in control of the situation is how he gets the job done. How else do you think he beat Vader at Maryx Minor?(questionable and obviously not canon, but it can be used as a source in AU.) How else did he beat the Jango Fett hologram used on him by Rahmm Kota and PROXY?
It's no damn surprise the man had a nightmare thinking the creepy goth child wielding the massive halberd would go rogue, it's called preparedness and a lack of trust.
All that been said, relax, see where the story goes. There will be a lessen on the tension, but only when Rory proves herself to him. Even still that's no guarantee, we're talking about a man here who practically brain dumped Sintas and Ailyn Vel after the "incident", and the same man who claimed Celibacy in the story "The Last One Standing"(Which would contradict Sintas, but we've already established that Star Wars has very bad continuity).
There are two kinds of fans who read crossovers, one for each of the universes being represented, to kick one's known image for their favorite character for the sake of someone else's to be treated "fair" is ridiculous.
Now that that is out of the way, feedback has been great other besides that. To know that I actually AM representing Boba well is a good pat on the back enough for me. Also glad that the fight scenes and general interaction are pleasing to you guys.
As for Lelei...she's way younger than Boba. Doesn't mean she may not be developing something for him, but you can be almost 100% certain Boba isn't going to pair with someone that young. Probably why he isn't attracted to Rory at all either, even though we can be sure Itami is.
Now for something fun and off topic, I was supposed to start College Monday. Somehow the snow keeps delaying it and it's looking as though I won't be starting until Friday now. Basically that means more time to work on this and my other story.
Lucky break? Or cruel fate?
Chapter 6: I Warned You
"Honor is what separates us from all the aruteiise of the galaxy. It's our honor that binds us to one another as brothers and sisters, honor that keeps us calm and true in battle. It is honor alone that has led us to victory a thousand times, and it is honor that will lead us to victory a thousand times again. Our honor is what defines us, what guides us, what molds our lives into something beautiful and worthy of showing the galaxy. And those without honor are dar'manda, lost souls, unworthy of living but too pathetic to die."
Gali Messada, Mandalore the Poet, known for his exceptional oratory skills.
The sun begins to rise as morning arrives.
"Lieutenant, not complaining or anything, but some extra firepower would be appreciated."
The sound of a man screaming in terror in the background
"These idiots are stubborn, what little good it's doing them. What's the status of the air support?"
An explosion.
"I've already made contact with the 401st, air support is en route and should be here momentarily. We're currently making our way to you now!"
"Both of you better be, Scanners are picking up an unusual energy reading from just outside the courtyard. Looks like your "Siren"'s here, Fett out"
Another man cries out in the background,"He can't be stopped! We must fle-"
Itami sighed as he finished keying out of his radio, Boba was pissed off and he could tell. As the Humvee continue to take sharp turns through Italica's winding streets, Itami looked out his window at the rooftops.
He's going to be even more pissed off once she shows up.
Rory was still well ahead of them, her speed making her appear almost like a blur as she effortlessly jumped from roof to roof. There was nothing childlike about her, Itami was sure of it now, hell the entire team was sure of it now.
As the truck took another sharp turn Itami reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a flare gun. Leaning out of his window Itami fired a flare into the air to mark their position to the inbound air support, last thing anyone needed was friendly fire.
The last thing anyone would want was to accidentally shoot at Boba, there wouldn't be any room for an apology there.
As Itami went back inside the Humvee's cabin, he unhooked his NVGs.
"Kuribiyashi, take off your V8's"
"Why?"
Tomita kept his head forward as he answered Shino's question, "Because you'll break them."
As their NVGs were stowed, Itami checked his rifle and racked it back to ensure it was properly loaded.
"What kind of a man is he? What kind of a man can take on an army by himself? There's so much hate in him, so much anger. Yet...it's like he bottles it up and focuses it on the job ahead."
Tomita looked at Itami with a look of concern as he asked the question, pausing to yank the steering wheel to the right through another sharp turn.
"I don't know Akira, I really don't. I know as much about him as you do, but I do know this. Once we get there? Things are going to get ugly, really ugly. So check your shots. And Kuribiyashi, for god's sake, save the CQB for another time."
Shino pouted as she received the order, Close Quarters Combat was her favorite form of combat. One she greatly excelled at.
Itami looked out the window one last time and watched as Rory leaped and spun through the air out of sight, they had arrived.
As the Humvee arrived at one of the main stairways leading to the courtyard, Tomita applied the brakes and the vehicle shrieked to a halt. As the trio piled out Itami ordered them to affix bayonets.
Bad idea.
In moments Shino gave a war cry and went to join the battle in the courtyard, bounding down the steps with her rifle forward.
Now Boba was going to have another reason to be pissed off.
Itami nodded to Tomita and the pair advanced down the stairs and behind the barricade set up by the villagers.
It took all the willpower within them to comprehend the scene in front of them.
Scattered about the courtyard were corpses, corpses everywhere. Most of them were indistinguishable from the terrible wounds and dismemberment inflicted upon them. Meanwhile, the screaming of men being destroyed piecemeal continued towards the center and as the pair looked onward, they soon saw the source.
Boba, Rory, and Shino fighting together.
"Boba! I've come to fight by your side! Let me prove my affection for you on the battlefield!"
Boba removed his boot from a bandit's caved in face as he looked into the air, Rory came giggling as she somersaulted to the ground.
As the Apostle landed beside him, she giggled as she looked at some of his handiwork from earlier. Bandit corpses littered the ground everywhere, the bounty hunter himself covered in blood.
"Oh my...perhaps you didn't need help after all."
"No, I just don't need yours."
As the two began to go back and forth, the world around them seemed to pause. Spectators both Bandit and villager alike had been awed by Boba's performance earlier, now Rory Mercury herself had joined him?
It was a terrible, terrible day to be an enemy.
Before their bickering could continue Boba promptly aimed his blaster at Rory and fired.
Only to hit a large bandit that had broke into a charge at her from behind. As Rory spun around to see the result of said shot, she quickly glanced back at Boba.
"You really do care!"
"Couldn't be further from the truth, but I'm sure Itami wants you alive though! So if you're going to be here, watch your back and don't get in my way! Where is Itami by the way!?"
"He should be here any moment!"
Rory nodded and hefted her halberd, by now she had noticed the strange glowing green blade in his other hand. She paused to stare at it for a few moments, everything about that blade was unnatural, yet not of a magical kind. It hummed and seemed to make the air shimmer around it as Boba raised it up to get into a stance.
"Stop gawking, we have an audience to attend to!"
"Right you are!"
By now the bandits had once again been whipped into a frenzy. This siege was all or nothing if they failed here there wouldn't be anywhere for them to go back to. Apostle and the relentless warrior or not, they needed to achieve victory here.
So with yells of defiance, they charged at the two, charged to their doom.
Although the pair were anything but friends, they fought with the same sort of familiarity. Anything Rory couldn't reach was promptly blown up or otherwise shot up by Boba. Occasionally they would even fight shoulder to shoulder, their blade swings almost choreographed as they charged forward into the thick of the bandits.
Not the strongest warrior or the most accurate archer could stop the pair, they were an unending storm of death.
"To your right idiot!"
Boba holstered quickly holstered his pistol and tossed a detonator into a group of shield soldiers who had attempted to box Rory in, the apostle giggling as she proceeded to finish them off.
"Like I said, you do care!"
"And like I said, I really don't!"
Throughout the fight, Boba had been recording Rory's movements via his helmet. The way she utilized her halberd, the way she moved, the way her arrogance betrayed her situational awareness. All of this would prove useful if the time came for him to put her down, something that would prove to be quite a challenge having seen what he saw so far.
She was strong, very strong, and for all his pride he respected strength when he saw it. But strength meant nothing without cause or purpose.
But there was someone who was about to join the fight who had plenty of both the former and latter.
Just as Boba had raised his pistol at another bandit's face, the target in question had been promptly skewered and hefted into the air. The kill belonged to Shino, and she was far from done.
Her rifle roared as she emptied some of her magazine into the bandit, she then promptly dropped the bandit's now limp corpse and proceeded to engage in CQB with some others. She was good, very good. Every dodge, parry, and rifle burst was systematic. She moved with the speed and intensity of a well-trained soldier.
Something Boba could definitely appreciate.
Now that, that's a woman. Still, let's see if she can keep up.
Until she blocked a downward sword strike with her rifle, promptly dispatching the perpetrator with a series of shots from her side arm. What had caused Boba to roll his eyes was the fact that said sword strike had unhinged a critical component to her rifle, rendering it functionally useless.
Controlled chaos, never be so absorbed in dispatching the enemy that you forget to respect your gear and it's limitations. All the same, she's the closest to a Mandalorian woman I've met yet.
As Shino looked at her now broken rifle, she heard Boba's voice call out to her. He skid to her side, putting his back against hers.
"Not bad, but you still have some learning to do!"
Shino pressed hers against Boba's as they continued to fire their weapons at the encircling bandits, providing covering fire for Rory as she continued to cut men down.
"Well, maybe when this is over you can teach me!"
Boba angled his body to deflect an arrow meant for Shino, promptly gunning down the archer responsible.
"Perhaps, where's your idiot Lieutenant?!"
As if to answer his question Boba heard the sounds of automatic rifle fire, he didn't have to look to see the source. Itami and Tomita had joined the fight, providing covering fire from behind the barricade.
Before Boba could say anything else, he heard them.
Rotors, the sounds of heavy cannons, and rockets.
The 401st had arrived. There was still one more threat to be neutralized, however. Promptly starting a comm line Boba patched through to Itami.
"Tell your copters to watch their fire, I'm going after the siren!"
There was a moment of silence over the net before he heard the sounds of Itami fumbling with the comm device.
"Roger! Oh and Fett? If it's not too much of hassle, try to bring the Siren back in one piece!"
Boba rolled his eyes as he began to engage his jetpack, "Only if it doesn't put up too much of a fight."
With that, Boba lifted off the ground with a roar, leaving Shino and Rory to deal with the bandits. As he flew over the courtyard's wall he watched as a few of the copters bobbed and weaved out of his way, their weaponry cutting down bandits everywhere. This battle was over, now it was just a matter of clean up.
Suddenly his scanner locked onto the siren's signature.
"There you are! Now let's see if you put up a fight!"
With that, he flew towards his latest target.
Myuute Luna Sires, couldn't believe it. They were losing, and worst yet, they were losing in the worst kind of way. Everything had been going so well earlier, the siege was unhindered and the wall to Italica had been breached. Her magic having stopped any sort of retaliation from archers manning the walls, but then everything had shifted in an instant.
He came, just like he said he would.
From the moment she had heard the screams of terror and sounds she had never heard before coming from within Italica, she knew they had angered someone or something.
Boba Fett.
She had seen the wounded scout return from Italica's eastern wall, heard him talk about the strange armored man who had single-handedly defeated him and his fellows. She had heard the warning clear as day too, that every one of them was going to die if they attacked Italica.
None of her fellows believed it, laughing as they killed the scout and placed his severed head atop one of their spears for his cowardice. Deep down, though, Myuute did, and now here they were paying the price for not heeding the warning.
Now strange iron Pegasi were flying throughout the air and destroying their army. None were spared and none could fight back. She watched as the Pegasi let loose roars of terrible destructive power, giant mounds of earth were thrown into the air and screaming men with it. Others weren't so lucky, they were torn to pieces by what looked like sparks glowing through the air.
Myuute was terrified, terrified of what lay ahead for her, terrified for her life, and more importantly, she regretted ever joining these bandits. So she did what she had to do, she tried to run away.
"Just where do you think you're going?"
Myuute froze in her tracks, her talons having barely lifted off the ground as she heard the cold grating voice. As she slowly turned her head around, she saw him, she finally came face to face with the name she prayed wouldn't find her.
Boba Fett, he stood there before her, covered in blood, his face covered by a sinister looking helmet, and wielding a green ethereal blade in one of his hands. In his other he held a strange silver wand-like object, he stood there like a statue as he continued.
"You must be the siren, I confess I thought you'd be more intimidating. All I see here is a girl who got herself into one hell of a bad situation."
As the battle continued to rage around them, Myuute stood there paralyzed with fear.
"S-stay away!"
Boba took a step forward.
"No, I'm here to collect."
"Just let me go!"
Another step.
"No, nobody escapes."
"P-please have mercy!"
Another step.
"All out of mercy."
By now he had gotten so close that he towered over Myuute, his helmet looking down at her, piercing her very soul. As she raised her hands to utter an incantation, her face exploded with pain as Boba smacked her with the back of the strange wand like device, causing her to fall to the ground.
As Myuute looked up at the face of her doom, she closed her eyes and made peace with the spirits.
"Do your worst Boba Fett."
"You couldn't handle it."
As Myuute opened her eyes she noticed that the green ethereal blade had dissipated, Boba stood over her as he returned the wand to a pouch of some sort.
"Your friends won't live to see another day, but you just might. The job was to bring you back alive, so I ask you this. Will you cooperate or will I have to force you?"
Myuute lay there as she looked up at Boba, the sounds of the battle still continuing all around them, the screams of the other bandits piecing the air as they were destroyed. She didn't dare want to find out what forcing her meant, but she also didn't know if there was a fate worse than death waiting for at Italica.
"Will...will they kill me?"
Boba slowly shook his head, "I doubt my client will allow that, but you still haven't answered my question."
Myuute once again lay there in silence, Boba had indeed honored his word before even if it meant a great deal of death and suffering. Perhaps he would do so again.
"I...I yield."
"Good choice."
And so Myuute Luna Sires accepted defeat, a terrible defeat, but she was alive. That had to amount to something.
Sometime later...
As the battle came to a close, Pina watched atop one of the walls as the strange new sights before her continued to fly through the air, the bandit hordes defeated and scattered around Italica.
Smoke rose from the ground as small fires were lit from the fields, caused by the terrible power brought to bear.
They had won, but at what cost? Italica was secure, but now it belonged to someone far greater and far more powerful than the Empire or the bandits.
As the sounds of the wounded and the dying echoed throughout the area, she heard Boba's voice from behind her.
"I told you."
Pina turned around and watched as a blood stained Boba made his way to her side, his armor shining in the light of the rising sun as he held his weapon cradled in his arms. He watched the sight in front of her as the iron Pegusi continued to fly around, some disgorging large amounts of soldiers.
"Now, I'm not well versed in the ways of politics, but I do think your Empire has gotten itself into a fight it has no chance of winning."
Pina turned to face Boba as he continued, "It would be in your best interest to cooperate with them, or you could just be destroyed like the bandits here."
Before she could reflect on what he said, Boba made his way towards one of the steps leading to the wall. Pina called out to him.
"Tell me Boba Fett, have you come here to destroy us?"
The bounty hunter didn't turn his head as he responded, "No, but I didn't come here to make the world a better place either. I didn't have a choice in the matter, you want a hero? Go talk to Itami."
And with that he disappeared down the stairs, leaving a confused Pina to stand there in silence and confusion.
Alright so definitely a shorter one, no argument there, but to squeeze in the negotiations afterward would feel odd and disrupt the flow and mood this chapter is meant to convey. It's the conclusion to the fight. That been said, I'll probably go ahead and power through the next one.