Parental Duties
By Rey
Chapter summary: Nevarro was an outpost for crimes and "distasteful" or shady businesses. Then Greef found a Mando base and an Imp base here. And, now….
Chapter warnings: casual mentions of killing, implied possible unwholesome interrogation methods
20. Greef: The Personages
Nevarro was an outpost for crimes and "distasteful" or shady businesses. Greef was used to it. he had grown up in this environment, and made a living accordingly.
And then, one day in one freaky event, he found that there was a Mando base somewhere under where he had been living for close to sixty years.
And then, in another, bigger, freakier event, he found that there was an Imp base here, too.
And all those are tied to one single person, in one way or another. One whom he knew only by the name of Mando, who was clad in armour from head to toe and never seen out of it, whose dedication to a single little child was so thorough that he wished he had been that child, that he bet other parents would have been ashamed of themselves and inspired in equal measure if only they'd known.
Life has been different, after that. Mando is a loose torpedo, now, no longer one of his bounty hunters. He himself is no longer head of the bounty hunters guild, at least not officially, and instead the Magistrate of Nevarro, which is now a mostly lawful planet, and he can't imagine what Grandpa would've thought and said about these.
As it is, though, he has a big something to worry about, more than the possible opinion of a long-dead man who picked a little child off of the streets and raised the said child as his own.
And, again, it's tied to Mando.
In the "You karked up. Now you're a dead being moving" manner.
For the third time this last year alone.
The green little bogwing is even involved. In all three events.
First, the green little bogwing was a bounty to be hunted, and Greef lost many of his hunters as well as nearly his life for trying to reacquire that little, criminally cute thing.
Second, he tried to cash in the bounty money himself, and nearly died twice in the process, to be saved by the bounty itself.
And third, he has apparently, unknowingly sent the Imps after the green little bogwing and the bogwing's terrifying protector via a worker in his employ.
And, if what Cara said is true – and she has no reason to lie, not when the truth is already awful enough to freak him out, which she is happy about! – the said bogwing has… multiplied? Thirteen more times? At least figuratively, if judged by the list of individual needs Mando has sent her.
Which means that, inadvertently, he has endangered fourteen little menaces' lives. Which are no doubt under the unexpectedly child-loving Mando's very fierce protection. And Mando is apparently on the way here.
Greef must prepare, then. And he is preparing. He's fished the very, very, very short-sighted worker out of the port and kept the fool tied up in somewhere only he nows. The said fool has been interrogated personally by Greef himself within an inch of his life, too, if sadly just figuratively, and its result – why he did it, who told him to do it, what the tracker was and where it was stuck on Mando's ship – has been forwarded to Mando via Cara. But Greef isn't so sure it's enough.
Well, enough or not, he can't do more at present, because Cara has been conscripting everyone into helping her make and/or gather and pack up basic and specialised supplies for the kids.
Everyone except for the dead being moving that he nabbed shortly after he'd gotten the news from that infernal woman, that is. Because he doesn't trust the fool to do anything but for basic biological needs. And, anyway, he can't have her kill the said fool too early. That honour rests with Mando, of course.
Surprisingly, though, the moment Mando touches down and gets out of his beaten-up ship, what he asks for is not the man who endangered his precious kids but supplies for the said kids.
And, "Do I need to worry about whoever that is?" is the absent-minded return inquiry when Greef asks him, while he is scrutinising each and every bit of the supplies.
Greef can only stare, for the longest time. And he finds his voice only when Mando pauses and stares back at him.
"No, of course you don't!" He tries for suave, but… well, suffice to say, he doesn't make it.
Worse, Cara laughs at him for that.
Fortunately, though, after a beat of more serious stare – and don't ask him how he knows that while Mando is still as fully armoured as ever! – Mando returns to sorting through the supplies. And, also fortunately, the former bounty soon enough toddles down the lowered ramp and makes a beeline for him.
Well, the green little bogwing is trailled by a scrawny, scrappy-looking little redhead human variant who totes a beaten-up, ancient rifle like they mean business, but Greef will not be hurting anyone here, so it's all right, right?
…Right?
`Damn, they could compete with Mando for the scariest silent stare!`
And, somehow, just as that thought passes through the fore of his mind, the damned preteen quirks a small pleased smile.
`Coincidence? Or can the kid read minds? Didn't the Jedi do that? Can I ask them about it or will Mando eviscerate me for that?`
Well, Greef usually enjoys gambling. But… not now. Not just now. No. so he returns his attention to the green little bogwing, and scoops the little creature up when the latter is just within arms' reach, and they spend a pleasant while catching up with each other.
Until the occupants of the three starfighters of unknown make nearby hop down and Greef sees how they're all garbed in Mando and Jedi iconic outfits, that is.
`Can they even do that? Weren't the Jedi and the Mandos enemies with each other or something like that?`
He's aware he's gawping only when the green little bogwing sneakily puts a tiny, tiny arm in his mouth.
He chokes, gags, squeaks, jerkily yanks the offending appendage out, and the little brat giggles.
`Damn, what has Mando been teaching this one?`
He glares at the little brat, but Cara already grabs the offending pipsqueak before he can do more – not that he knows what he might do! So he switches his attention to the newcomers, greets them, inquires about the trip, and asks if they'd like to explore Nevarro City.
"We would like to be away as soon as possible," is the polite but blunt and firm answer given by one of the Mandos after the spiel, which is… well, predictable, really, after what Cara said and Greef himself pieced through all the titbits and guesswork, but it's still disheartening.
Because it means that Mando is still very much suspicious of him, and potentially hostile towards him, and even more potentially unwilling to ever work with him again if not super necessary like this, which means that he would lose access to such a superb asset and also the green little bogwing… and maybe also the scrappy little urchin with the ancient rifle that reminds him so much of his little self long, long ago.
`But maybe, if I could point him to a cruiser that could carry all five little scrappers plus those five little ships, in addition to giving him the perpetrator…?`
What he found under the waves on Kamino – under much personal and professional peril! – is an asset he would be loathed to part with under other circumstances. But, for such a return, with such a potential for more….