Serena & Din

Chapter 10: Running Deep

|°<Sorgan>°|

             The  water on the lake rippled with content as the setting rays kissed the trees, slightly swaying to a gentle breeze. He stood on a small cliff overlooking the lake. He loved the openness of this planet; it reminded him so much of the old home. A home which he can never get back.  As he reminisced the past, somewhere in the distance a shout came from the bottom of the hill "Commander! Message for you sir!" The young scout ran up to him to give him the note. He took it without looking and glanced at the scrap of paper hastily scrawled on. The next thing the scout knew, his senior officer began cursing with his large vocabulary. He started marching back down to the small encampment of his small troup. "Contact the higher ups," he said, trying to keep his temper in check "tell them our position has been changed, we're leaving tomorrow morning."

"Sir yes sir!" chirped the scout as he scampered back to  his part of camp. Once the commander got back to his desk, he begun to send a vidtape message, only feel sudden rumbling, making the map-desk shake. "No," he whispered "Not now!" 

Then it came.

|°Navarro °|

 "He can't be, it's not possible!" Serena exclaimed

Skylar just shrugged and said "Well I'm afraid it is, he's back, and from what I can tell whatever he's planning is more than just kidnapping you." Serena stepped back to try and understand what she just heard

"Care to tell me who's this guy?" Din asked, leaning against the wall. "I'll tell you later," Serena said quickly before turning back "Don't think we'll let you off the hook so easily Skylar, we're keeping you till..."

"Til what? You kill me?" He challenged with a smirk. Glaring was all Serena could do to not bust his brains in his seat then and there. " Get Cara please Din, we're going to keep them for a little while."
Suddenly Skylar's expression changed to obvious fear "No! Please! I beg you!"
" Oh don't be such an idiot,"Serena said as she turned to leave " We're not going to kill you, just keep you and your friends here until we can figure out what to do with you, killing not being one of them."
As Cara picked him up to put him back, the most he gave Serena was glare. She ignored it. Din walked up behind her, playing with the micro chip they found earlier between " You forgot this..."
"It's fine, we'll just do it later, I need slee- You kept it?!"

At that, Serena told Din to hurry back to their room in the inn before bolting out the door, Din chasing after her. Once safely indoors Serena locked the door and took the micro chip from Din's grasp. "What the kriff is the matter?!" Din exclaimed. Serena then went to her knapsack and pulled out a small projection probe. She then took the clear blue chip and inserted it into the device, to where it began to whiz and levitate from the palm of her hand and project an image " Holy womp rats," she muttered. For Din, it didn't look much,just plans for some project of sorts. It wasn't until he saw an imperial officer's face. He looked to be around his age with short chestnut grizzled hair and mustache, the expression on his face looked to be if both fear and urgency.
" My liege," he spoke " I trust that you have made to sector in hopes of our uniting. But I fear we're being stalled by a...an obstacle. Please abandon all and return to Sorgan for my troops are in a desperate rampage eeeeee..." The message began crackling, then died as the chip must've gotten slightly fried. " Dank Ferrik," she muttered as she pocketed the chip walked to the nearby window, where the moon shimmered brilliantly. Meanwhile, Din was still trying to process the new information just found. "Something tells me were going to be moving around more often." He smirks, but Serena doesn't. "Do you know what this means? My father has been taken, and to where I don't know why. Why can't this just happen to someone else?" Her face falls into one of fear and anger.  "Hey," Din gets to her and puts one reassuring hand on her shoulder and uses his other to tilt her chin up to stare into her eyes. two deep sea green spheres that can turn even the most rugged hearts to slush. "You know you're with me, and that you don't need to face this alone. There's a part of the Code of Honor that I always follow, you should too."

"But I'm not even Mandalorian,"

"Doesn't matter, everyone should believe Loyalty is life, for without anyone, who are you? Does that make sense?"

She nodded. "Now where's that smile? I've grown to like it." At that he strokes her cheek lovingly, making slightly blush a rosey pink, and gave Din a small smile. "There, that's more like it, now come on, we got a long day tomorrow."

As they both made thier way to the bedroom, a disturbing thought came to Serena. "What about Skylar and his bunch? We can't just leave them here ungaurded."

"That's where we'll give him a choice." Din said as he made his way to the latrine.  "And what choice is that?" Serena called, changing into her nightclothes.

"To fight with us, or rot in a cell." He replied.

           The next morning, Din went to the jail while Serena was left dreaming. He came in to find a sleeping Skylar, drool dribbling from his mouth. "Wake up," he growled darkly, his helmet modulator making it all the more intimidating. The prisoner woke with a start, falling off the small cot in the process. "You could've knocked." He snarled back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "You're going to need to decide something," Din said through the bars of the cell "And what may that be, since it's made me lose many much needed hours of sleep." Skylar stood up and walked toward the Mandalorian, the heavy-duty bars being the only barrier between them. "It's more or less a proposition, Serena would tell you herself, but she's preoccupied with another matter."

"Well spit it out."

"We're going to have to go to Sorgan. I'm assuming you know of this planet?"

"Did a couple jobs,yeah, but what has that to do with me?"

"You have  resources and knowledge that can be an advantage to both you and us." 

"If you're asking me to join you, might as well shoot me here and now." Skylar's gaze hardened. Din's been through this sort of  stuff before. "I wish I could, but right now your occupation will fit perfectly for what we're planning?"

"Suppose I did join up, what's in it for me and my boys?"

"There will be a commision of course, not to mention an honorable reputation gained after. I can also ask Serena if we can do something for your family."

Skylar considered this for a moment, studying Din up and down as if to inspect his honesty. After a while he asks "When are we leaving? And also, will my record be cleared?"

"That you'll have to ask Cara Dune. I hope you'll find this better than working for imperials." With that said, Din turned to leave. He was surprised to find that easier than he though, but that also made him suspicious as well. He decided to just be careful.

At last, a lead!