Bounty

fourteen

Calista wakes up the next morning to find herself cuddled up to Kix on the couch and smiles to herself. As her head rests against his chest, she can hear his calm and steady heartbeat.

Kix stirs under her and Calista quickly closes her eyes to pretend she's still asleep. He runs a hand through her hair to move it out of her face as he looks down at her.

"Good morning cyar'ika." Kix hums, still just waking up.

Calista feels her cheeks get hot as her eyes flutter open. "Good morning." She responds, not sure what that other word he said means. "How're you feeling?"

Kix sighs as he moves to sit up, leading to Calista sitting up as well. He glances out one of the windows to see that the sun is fully risen and sighs. "I have to meet Carina."

Cal bites the inside of her cheek. "Well let's not keep her waiting." She stands from the couch and holsters her blaster.

"Cal." Kix places his hand on top of hers, which is hovering over the secured blaster.

She looks up to meet his eyes and sighs as she leaves the weapon behind. Kix smiles thankfully and opens the door for them to leave the small villa.

As they approach the village square, their eyes land on Carina as she stretches against the decommissioned water fountain.

"I was starting to think you weren't going to show up." Carina shouts, facing the opposite direction.

"Sorry.. It was a rough night." Kix admits and Calista glances up at him to make sure he's okay.

Carina exhales and turns to face them. "Well I hope you're recovered. The only way you're getting anything out of me is if you can keep up." She smirks.

Before either Cal or Kix can get a word out, Carina takes off into the trees. The two exchange a look before running after her, slowing down once they catch up to match her pace. They follow Carina as she weaves through the trees with grace, only stopping once they reach a vast clearing in the forest.

"Your niece seems lovely." Calista says, making Kix chuckle a bit. Being asleep for 50 years did not help his endurance at all.

Carina slows to a walk around the clearing to cool down before stopping in front of the pair. "Not bad, next time I'll have to pick it up a bit." She smiles at the Zeltron, who's completely unfazed by their run.

Calista doesn't catch the girl's smile though, she's too focused on the random space among the trees. It's very unlikely that a clearing this big happened in its own.

"What happened here?" Cal asks.

Carina takes a deep breath as she faces the clearing. "The First Order happened." She begins. "When they finally reached our sector in 10ABY during their efforts to crush the Resistance, they sent teams down to clear a lot of the trees so that their bigger ships had somewhere to land."

"You said the First Order wiped out your village, right?" Calista asks, Carina nods. "Don't take this the wrong way but.. How are you still here?"

Carina glances over at Kix, who's already staring back.

"Rex." Kix immediately assumes, given what he knows already.

"Before I was even born, my father created a bunker hidden deep in the forest." Carina explains.

Kix smiles softly to himself. "Fives was always a step ahead of the rest of us."

"Once the First Order reached the ground, my uncle Rex brought me to the bunker." Carina blinks back her tears as she looks away from her two new friends. "He told me he'd come back for me after they were gone.." A tear rolls down her cheek but she quickly wipes it away. "Eventually I realized that he wasn't coming back. I'm not sure how long I was down there, but when I got back to the village.." Steady streams of tears roll down her face as she clenches her jaw. "Nobody was left. They must've gotten rid of the bodies but I knew what had happened.. I felt it, in a way."

Tears begin to roll down Kix's face as well. "I'm so sorry." He whispers as he fights his own tears.

Carina takes deep breaths to steady her breathing before turning to face Kix and Calista once again. "We should head back. I'll make lunch." She swiftly changes the topic.

Kix agrees, not wanting to push her to share, and the three of them jog back to Carina's villa in the trees. Once they're inside, Calista helps herself to looking around at the pictures decorating the living area.

She picks up a picture of what has to be young Carina suspended in air as a man that looks like Kix holds his arms up to catch her with a wide smile on his face. In the background of the picture a woman can be seen with a look of horror on her face—who is undoubtedly Carina's mom.

Calista's heart aches at the amount of family memorabilia in the house but she shoves her emotions away.

"I hope you guys aren't picky, I haven't had time to go hunting lately." Carina enters the room with bowls of food for each of them and sits on the couch across from Kix.

"It looks great, thank you." Calista smiles at the girl as she sits beside her, who nods in response.

"You said the First Order attacked in 10ABY." Kix asks. "So you've been alone on this planet for the past 20 years?"

Carina stifles a laugh. "Where else would I go? Even if I had a ship and knew how to fly, the entire galaxy is under the threat of The First Order. This is the one place they'd never come back to."

Calista meets Kix's eyes, both of them thinking the same thing.

"What brought you two here anyway? Raydonia doesn't have much to offer in terms of trade or sightseeing." Carina asks.

"Do you want the long version or the short version?" Calista asks, earning a chuckle from Carina.

When Carina sees that the Zeltron was being serious, she stops sipping the remaining broth from her bowl. "Oh, uh.. I don't know.."

"The First Order knows that I'm alive." Kix explains. "Calista thinks that, since I'm the last clone trooper, they're going to come looking for me." He says, clearly not convinced by any of it.

"And she's absolutely right." Carina agrees with Calista, who gives an I-told-you-so look to Kix. "Kylo Ren is obsessed with Vader's history. He'd do anything to extract any knowledge from your head—no matter the cost."

Kix's eyes widen at her bluntness.

"How did the First Order find out about you?" Carina questions. "How are you even here right now?" She spirals into a list of subsequential curiosities.

Calista sighs. "Right, so the long version it is." She sets her bowl down. "You might want to get comfortable."