•••
"You never told me."
Cara stopped picking at her nail beds and looked at the girl next to her. "Told you what?"
"Galdana and Alderaan were the same."
Cara shrugged and her attention went back to picking at her nails. She heard Fwega sigh, but didn't meet her piercing green eyes.
"Cara, please. I'm sorry if I overstepped, but I just didn't know. I want to know why you didn't tell me." Her voice was desperate now.
Cara finally looked up. The speeder cruised along the black sands, Cara, Fwega, and Mando in the back with Greef in the front, Mythrol nervously driving.
"I don't tell you a lot of things, Fwega. I lost everything on Alderaan."
Fwega felt her sadness and took her hand in her's, her attention turning back to the front.
"I lost everything, too." She whispered.
Cara squeezed Fwega's hand.
"We're here."
The cliff loomed over them, sounds echoing from the platform above them.
"What are we looking at?"
"The whole base is powered by a reactor," Cara answered, leaping out of the speeder, "we sneak in, overload the reactor, and get the hell out of there."
"Nice plan." Fwega accepted Mando's hand and hopped off the speeder to stand by his side.
"Let's be fast. And keep the speeder running." Mando grabbed her hand and trudged forward, stopping at the elevator in the side of the cliff.
"Controls are useless, they're melted."
"It is getting a little hot." Fwega let go of Mando's gloved hand to tug at her collar, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. She ruffled her short hair and heard the beads clack gently over the chatter of her friends. She pulled one out and weighted it in her hand, admiring the tiny carvings in the green wood. An ancient protection spell.
Her mother had woven dozens of beads into her long, pink hair when she was little, her rough, calloused hands savoring the little time she had left with her daughter. They hadn't had a ruler for generations. Her mother knew that she would be made queen immediately upon glancing the tuft of pink on her little baby's head. A stonekeeper and a merchant. Red and white. Her mother had known in her mind that it was possible, but no one would doubt her when she presented the child to the public. Pink hair only came once in a generation.
Fwega had worked her whole life to undo the stigma of different hair colors, reuniting families and returning children. But even as more stonekeepers had children with merchants, she was the only one with pink hair, solidifying her status as a royal.
Fwega felt a hand on her shoulder and she blinked, her old memories fading once again as the world came back into focus. She threaded the bead back into her hair and turned towards Mando, who tilted his head at her.
"Reminiscing?" He could feel her bittersweet nostalgia.
"Yes. I just miss it sometimes, that's all." She smiled at him ruefully and nodded, sensing a question forming. "You can go on up. I'll use the elevator."
He nodded back and, with one last unsure glance, jetpacked up to the platform above them.
"How long is this going to take, exactly?" Cara stared at Mythrol, unimpressed.
"It's okay, this-" Fwega jumped as a stormtrooper fell down from the platform to land behind them. "Tal Gnosh!"
"Look, lady, this is rated for light plumbing and such. You’re lucky I even packed it at all."
YOU ARE READING
GALDANA || the mandalorian
Fanfiction"I love you more than any planet or star in the galaxy." ••• Fwega Galdana had lost everything. Her home, her family, her planet. But when she fell asleep on a ship she assumed was abandoned, she never expected to find an adventure that would take h...
