PURPOSE | The Mandalorian

XXXVI

After the ship lurched into hyperspace, Din jumped down from the cockpit, startling Cara out of her nervous pacing. She quickly glanced at him and asked sharply, throwing her hands in the air, "Don't I need to be vetted or something?"

I rolled my eyes, pushing myself off the wall that I was leaning against. "No," I said flatly, which only seemed to confuse her more, "He has no idea that you or me are coming. He thinks it's just him and the kid." I nodded at Din for emphasis, but he just gave me a look that said it was more complicated than that.

Sidelining her confusion for a moment, Cara narrowed her brows in disbelief as her gaze settled on Din. Then she said, "Your contact honestly thought you'd come back alone?"

Din shrugged, placing one hand on his hip as he gripped a rung of the ladder with the other. "Karga isn't stupid," He admitted, exhaling a short breath. "I'm sure he expected me to come with some backup, but he just doesn't know who or how many."

"Won't that be a problem?" Cara asked.

"If it is," I said, "It's not our problem."

She didn't argue any further. As she sat down on the bench, she turned her head to look towards the ladder to the cockpit, where Din had left the child. "Are you sure he's gonna be okay up there?" She asked again, voicing her concerns about the child now instead of herself. Although I'm sure she was worried the kid might press a button that makes us all explode, shooting us out into the vacuum of space and killing us instantly.

Good thing no such button exists.

I hope.

Din waved off her concerns. "He's fine," He affirmed, sauntering towards his still-broken weapons vault.

And he says he doesn't saunter.

He swung the door open, glancing at Cara as he silently invited her to look inside.

Once her eyes caught a glimpse of the impressive collection, they immediately widened as her jaw dropped. While she ran her fingers over some of the weapons that caught her eye, Din said, "Pick any one you want."

But my body flinched when she carelessly tossed a charge at me. "We might need those," She says with a wink. But before I could scold her on her carelessness, she glanced between me and Din and asked, "So do you trust the contact?"

I shifted my gaze to Din as well. I've never met Greef Karga, so it was up to him on whether we trusted him or not. But Din just stared at Cara. Then he huffed, "Not particularly."

Cara pulled a nice looking handheld blaster off the shelf, turning it over in her hands. Then she asked, narrowing her brows at us again, "Then why go back?"

I glared at her incredulously. "Did you listen to anything I said earlier? We're being hunted, Cara. As long as that Imp lives, we will never be safe."

She just blinked slowly at me, and I could begin to feel her pity towards us, but that's not what I wanted. I just wanted her to understand how fucking important this was. For me, for Din, and for the child. For our futures, this one job meant everything.

"Okay," Cara breathed, lowering her head in understanding. "Okay."

A huge pressure that had been building up in my chest released, and I let out a deep, thankful breath. "Thank you," I offered her, and her eyes lifted to mine as she nodded.

All of a sudden, the Crest jerked violently, throwing all of us way off balance. Cara slammed into the vault door as I grunted, flinging my arms out to catch myself on the shelves behind me. Then she bent her knees in an effort to brace herself for the next lurch of the ship, which sent a heavy box on the shelf above my head over the ledge, slamming right into my shoulder. Letting out another sharp cry, I pitched to the side with another sharp jerk of the Crest, flying right into Din's chest. His arms immediately wrapped around me as we fell together, and he slammed his back onto the floor as he broke my fall.