t w e l v e




THE THREE MANAGED TO SIT IN SILENCE FOR AN EXCEPTIONALLY LONG TIME, and yet they were only a quarter into their journey to Tatooine.


Bazine, the Suerton creature tapped his foot to his favorite song replaying in his head. The Mandalorian sat unmoving in his passenger seat, gloved fingers on the controls and helmet moving slightly to follow passing stars. Mia, bent over in concentration as she sharpened the tips of her weapons.


As she scraped the edges of her favorite, emerald encrusted dagger, her thoughts began to wander to boredom. She no longer had to sit obediently quiet next to the bounty hunter - she had new company to entertain herself.


"So Bazel -"


"Bazine." He looked up.


"Whatever," She examined her dagger tip before sharpening the next. "What got you locked up in the most secure prison on Cantonica? How did you manage to piss off the Imperials?"


Her mind itched at the mystery fugitive they were harboring. Although the Mandalorian stayed stationary, he couldn't help but be intrigued as to what he had to say. He too had pondered the same thing.


"Have you ever heard the saying surrounding my kind?" He said.


Mia furrowed her brows in thought before saying, "My mother used to bless me with the luck of the Suertons - some superstitious myth she inherited."


"Oh, it's no myth." He smiled, "Suerton's have the ability to subconsciously affect probability. From a young age, I was taught to harness this ability."


As a child, Mia had never intended to leave her family farm. The rich plains and fertile fields were enough to satisfy her curiosity. Upon becoming a bounty hunter, however, she had witnessed parts of the galaxy her ancestors could only dream of. Slowly, these innocent myths were becoming easier to digest as reality. Mia had come to realise myths that were believed in, tended to become true.


"My probability skills were so enhanced that I wanted to challenge myself to the most established casino in the galaxy. I went to Canto Bight not for the reward, but the excitement."


"You're insane." Mia scoffed.


"Maybe," he nodded. "But shutting down one of the most advanced planets in the outer rim is quite the adventure."


Mia glanced up, intrigue filling her eyes. He'd gotten her attention now.


Bazine giggled, "In a single night, I'd wiped out every gambling table at the casino, cleared cash deposits from banking my chips. Cantonica has a strong dependency on Canto Bight. The casino fuels the entire planet."


"How did you get caught?" She gaped.


"After a couple of weeks, the casino was finding it difficult to repay its loans with no assets to hand. Local businesses that depended on the casino's growth went out. Banks, government buildings, recreational centres all disintegrated. That night the casino was wiped out clean, they finally traced me down to the single source."


Mia sat, knives down and lips parted. "Welll...shit."


Although he expressed it neither verbally not physically, Mando was also surprised. He thought he was transporting some petty theft leader, not a criminal of this magnitude.


Mia returned her short attention span to her blades, "Well I hope you don't plan on staying on Tatooine for long. Your home planet is the first place they'll look."


"I'm grabbing my things and heading over to a friend of mine inhabiting unknown territory." He grinned.


She looked up at the passing stars in thought, "I wonder how much the bounty on your head is. For a crime like that you've gotta be worth something big."


Both the Mandalorian and Bazine turned to look at her, the latter with a frightened expression.


"I'm kidding of course." She said seriously.


The Mandalorian re-shifted his gaze forward before shrugging, "It's not a bad idea. We need the credits."


"I was kidding!" Mia looked over at the worried Suerton, "He's joking we're not turning you in."


"I don't joke." Said the Mandalorian.


Mia sighed, holding her head in her hand as the Razor Crest fell into uncomfortable silence once more.


Bazine broke the quiet with a small mutter to Mia, "I knew you were the nice one."


She turned, pointing a dagger in his direction with a fierce look in her eye, "Don't push it."





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Feeling so tired that she no longer felt tired, Mia's eyes adjusted to the bright suns as they landed upon Tatooine some hours later.


As the Razor Crest fell into a small jolt as it landed on the sandy dunes, Mia exchanged a knowing glance with Mando before they simultaneously turned to face Bazine with weapons in hand.


"Start speaking." Mia said.


The creature held up his shackled hands, "Alright... sitting in that cell all day, I became intrigued as to what the guards were always talking about. They constantly mentioned the lost queen and I slowly figured that she'd been kidnapped. That's when I started listened out for specific locations, not for personal gain of course but — "


The Mandalorian inched his blaster closer to the Suerton's head and said, "I'm getting impatient."


He quivered, "I'm entirely certain that they're keeping her hostage on Hoth."


Mia had only heard stories about the unforgiving snow planet. "Where on Hoth?" She asked.


"That's all I know."


"Hoth?" Mia tightened her grip on her dagger in frustration. "That's the most valuable information you had?"


She had expected coordinates, a specific address, but rather she got an entire planet. She was beginning to think their luck was running out.


"I can only pray for your good fortune." He said in a small voice.


Mia grunted and went to lunge for the Suerton man, but the Mandalorian was quick to pull her back, restraining her arms by her sides. Her exhaustion channelled with hunger and impatient nature made her want to violently lash out on the poor man.


"Maybe you can try the old Imperial base on the North-Westen hemisphere." Bazine squealed, "I wouldn't be surprised if they were still using it."


With a harsh shove, Mia slid from the Mandalorian's grasp and before he could react, she slashed her sharpest blade through the chains of his shackles. With a clank, they hit the floor and his hands were free.


"I'm very, very tired." Her stern eyes looked into his bleak ones, "So I'm giving you a minute to run before I'm suddenly in the mood to slash your throat."


Mando sat back and let her handle this one. There was no taming the wild beast within Mia; he'd come to learn this with experience.


A small shriek escaped the Suerton's lips as he scrambled to his feet. Mando pressed the door control behind him, opening the hatch for the terrified man, as he escaped into the sandy dunes.


Mia collapsed back into her seat, legs pulled up and stressed hands running through her hair. This endeavour was putting more strain on her body than she had expected, and this was supposedly the easy part.


"Let's assess the situation here." Mando spun his chair to face Mia.


"Oh sure," Mia mumbled with her face in her hands, "Let's go over how Mia came up with the worst plan ever, nearly got us killed only to rescue some casino con who gave us a 60,000 kilometre radius location."


"Not quite." He replied.


At the sound of trickling water, Mia glanced up to find Mando pouring a small cup of water into her Fugle plant.


"First, you forgot to water your stupid plant today."


Her tired eyes blinked as she watched his blank visor expression.


"Second," he continued, "We're both past the exhaustion limit. We're sleeping before we even think about leaving for Hoth."


He sat back in his chair, the t-shaped glass of his visor burning an intimidating glance through her face.


"And third, we're nowhere near prepared for that hostile rat pit." He turned to look at the rolling orange hills of Tatooine, "This is a good place to stock up on supplies, which might take us into tomorrow."


A smirk played on the girl's lips as she lifted her feet onto the dashboard. He'd been so quiet on their journey she forgot that he had the ability to think let alone speak at all. It was reassuring to have a partner, rather than feel the wrath of guilt, stress and tiredness all on her own shoulders.


"When did you get so vocal?" she said before her eyelids easily closed and he head leaned back.


Mia could feel the grasp of sleep slowly pulling her into a comfortable darkness before her eyes shot open, legs being shoved off the dashboard by a heavy gloved hand.


"Supplies first," he stood, "Sleep after."


Mia groaned loudly and dramatically before following him off the ship. As she rubbed her tired eyes, she made a mental note of how much he hated feet on the control board - something she definitely intended to keep doing for her own pathetic amusement.











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I love reading all your comments you're all so nice oh my

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