Across the skies

Chapter one

Guinevere sat in the corner chair of the cockpit and pulled her legs up to sit cross in front of her. She grabbed onto her ankles to prevent them from slipping and looked at the side of the Mandalorian's helmet. He kept his steady gaze forward as they moved slowly through hyperspace- or maybe it was fast. She was never really sure about things like that. They always just... were to her. She didn't question them.

"So, what's your name?" Her head tilted to the side so she caught a glimpse of the very edge of the T dug into his visor. Her eyes narrowed at the sight as she tried to imagine what laid beyond the black glass. "Mandalorians still have names, correct? So-" she lifted an expectant hand towards him and rolled him to egg him on. "I would really prefer to call you by something other than Mandalorian."

He kept his gaze forward with his gloves hands tightly holding the wheel. With the single question she felt his irritation start to simmer.

"People call me Mando."

Her chin ticked up half an inch. "Ah." She wagged a finger towards him. "Which is just a nickname for Mandalorian. I have nicknames that play off what I am too, but that's not what I asked." She dropped her hand to her lap. "Your birthname. You know mine. It was in that chain code you got when you picked me up for a bounty." A playful smile tugged on her lips at the implication. "You know practically every biological thing there is to know about me, and yet, I know absolutely nothing about you." Her head tilted to the side to get a better look at his helmet. "All I'm asking is a name. It's not much."

His irritation grew and doubled into annoyance.

He turned to look sharply at her over his shoulder- or, at least, she assumed it was a sharp look from the way his anger created sparks in the air around him. "Shouldn't you be teaching the kid?" He asked her gruffly. "That's the deal. I keep you safe as long as you teach the kid. The moment you can't teach him, you become useless to me."

Her smile fell at the threat.

"Fine, Mandalorian." She dropped her feet from the chair and stood tall behind him. "But it's just you, me, and the kid on this small ship. Eventually you'll have to open up to me." She turned towards the ladder and started down it. The floor of the cockpit reached her chin before she stopped to glare at him once more. "That armor placed around you is cold enough. You don't have to add to it." With her last, feeble attempt at a dig she dropped the few feet to the hub below them.

Her loud fall echoed through the hub and made the child let out a startled yip from its open compartment.

The simple sound boosted her mood and made her forget all about the angry Mandalorian one story up.

She turned away from the cockpit and slowly made her way towards his sleeping quarters. "Did I scare you?" She teased the small child. She bent to her knees in front of the compartment and lifted her index finger to his outstretched palm. "You are overcome with fear, my darling," her head tilted to the side as she moved her thumb along the outside of his hand. "Tell me why."

The child's naïve eyes closed as he bowed his head towards her.

She followed suit by leaning forward until her forehead pressed against his, then she closed her eyes to let him show her what terrified him.

Just as before when he showed her how the Mandalorian saved him, her vision faded to white before overcoming with a faint image of a sterile gray room. Pain and fear soaked the air until she could taste, smell, and feel it.

Something pricked her arm and refused to budge, no matter how much she wiggled it about.

The child's wails sifted through the air, but it wasn't a small yip, it was a screech of agony. A bone-chilling scream that hurt her worse than the needle in her arm.