An Unlikely Pair || Mandalorian

Chapter 4: The Child

Ugh this chapter was a pain to write. I love the episode, but its a pain to write. Hope people like Zel though, I'm enjoying writing here.

Kuiil is also really fun to write

A shot fired.

The droid fell to the ground, a little hole in the side of it's head. She let go of her weapon as Mando holstered his. She looked at him with a hard stare, then to the droid. Then she looked back at the child, who cooed at her, reaching for her again, but his eyes were stuck on the Mandalorian next to her.

"Mando..." She started, hating what she was about to say, but she would hate it even more if she stayed silent, "we can't turn him in."

Her partner looked at her. "Why not?"

Zelona swallowed. " Din ." She said his name. She learned his name on her birthday, she had joked it was her birthday wish to know who her mysterious partner's name was, and he actually told her. Granted he might have been drunk but still.

"Din, he's just like me."

The togruta was uncharacteristically silent on the way back to the ship. He didn't understand what she had meant, just like her, at first. They looked nothing alike, nowhere near the same. But then he remembered she had once told him that force users could sometimes sense when one another was near. It was easier if it was someone they knew, but it happened with strangers.

It explained her silence and somber look, as though she had just found out she had killed someone close to her.

"Hey," he looked over his shoulder to her, where she was walking next to the cradle that the kid was in. The little green... thing... refused to let go of her finger and she made no effort to take it back, so she was stuck by him. Her orange eyes glanced to his visor and he couldn't remember seeing her so lost. "Zel-"

"No, Din." She said in a way that made him shut his mouth instantly. The togruta rarely interrupted him when it was something this serious. "There's nothing that can make this better. It was bad enough taking a job from the Empire, the ones who hunted my people, both of our people, to near extinction. And now I've learned I helped them hunt one of my own. There is nothing that can-" She stopped, both her sentence and her footsteps. He paused too, listening.

He heard a faint hiss and the sound of dampened footsteps and he made a move from his blaster. Just as she did Zelona grabbed one of her lightsabers and threw it like a spear somewhere above him.

A cry rang out in the small ravine they wandered as a Trandoshan fell from above and he stepped out of the way to avoid being hit by it. The hunter landed on its back, Zelona's lightsaber hilt sticking out of its chest.

Before he got a moment to give her a rare compliment another hunter dropped down next to him and another by his partner. The trandoshan swung a vibro-ax at him which he blocked with his gauntlet, the force of the strike knocking the blaster from his hand.

The second one went for the baby, in which the togruta guarding him shoved the cradle away before igniting her other same and hissing at the lizard. The new arrival swung repeatedly at her, aiming for her torso, which was a hard position to block from the close proximity. She opted to just jump out of the way, narrowing dodging a gut slash.

From behind her he heard the clang of metal on metal followed by a groan and she risked a glance to see her partner on the ground, having been jumped by a 3rd hunter. It looked like the hunter's ax clipped her partner's arm and another took the opportunity to knock him to the ground. The beskar protected him from the damage, but it did nothing to soften the impact.