A girl ran through the crowded streets of Canto Bight, panting as her head whipped back and forth in a constant, frantic swivel, hoping to see one of two things. She needed either a really good hiding place, or a certain beskar clad partner of hers.
Already labored breathing became heavier with anxiety as the girl heard the shouts of her pursuers, their numbers growing.
"She went this way!" a particularly close voice called.
"Get Undo!" another shouted.
The girl turned down a narrow alley that smelled like someone had dumped years worth of fathier dung in it. She suppressed a cough, holding her precious cargo closer to her chest to shield it from the stench, and flung herself through a cracked doorway before her pursuers could turn the corner and see her.
She held her breath despite her urge to suck in gasps of air to fill her tired lungs as they ran past her hiding place, most of the heavy footfalls continuing down the alleyway and turning off somewhere, but one or two remained behind.
"Search the alley!" a deep voice commanded, and it was met with a grunt as she heard things being shifted around in search of her. A crackle sounded.
~Have you found her?~ the voice of Undo, leader of a street gang in the Underworld of Canto Bight, sounded through a communicator.
"Negative," the deep voice responded. A frustrated hiss crackled through the speaker.
~Fine, come back to base, she'll probably come once she realizes we have her previous Mandalorian~ the girl stifled a gasp at hearing that, instead just clenching her jaw and waiting for the pair of thugs to leave the alley. She silently slipped out from behind the cracked door, trailing the pair at a distance so she could at least find out where they were keeping her partner.
Ruu'Eva yawned from his place in the sling across Imogen's chest, and she was thankful that he didn't make much noise during it. She hushed him, bouncing slightly as she continued to trail the thugs, a devaronian and rodian.
The pair soon grew to a trio, then there were six of them, and then all twenty of the thugs Undo had sent after Imogen and the baby were trudging back to his lair. Imogen was thankful as the streets got more crowded with random people as well as gang members, allowing her to blend in more easily.
"How did Undo manage to catch the Mandalorian?" the rodian asked his devaronian partner.
"No clue," he laughed with a shrug. "I just hope I'm there when he takes that helmet off," Imogen's jaw clenched once more, palming a vibroblade but withholding from using it, at least while there were so many people around.
"Do you think he looks like that green thing?" the rodian asked.
"That would explain why he hides his face, especially in front of that pretty mechanic he keeps around," the devaronian laughed.
"Why does Undo want her, anyway? Isn't the reward only for the Mando?" a human in the group piped up, and the Rodian shook his head.
"She's one of those fanged bitches the Empire is after," he said, and the human nodded in understanding.
"What are they offering for them now?"
"3,000 credits," Imogen sucked in a breath, she hadn't known that the Empire had upped the reward. Last she had heard they were paying 500 credits for any of her species given to them. The human whistled.
"That's almost as much as the Mando!" the group laughed in glee at the thought of a bigger payday before ducking one by one under a curtain that led to an unsuspecting building in sight of the big casino. Imogen's purple eyes scanned the building, looking for other entry points, but it didn't even look like there were any windows on this side of it. Subtly, Imogen crept around the perimeter of the building, surprised to see that it was much bigger than it appeared at first glance, stretching back for a long while before coming to the end of the building. On the other side there was a metal door that Imogen recognized as looking like the service entrances at the casinos, where she and Din had been looking for a recent bounty.
