SEE ME, SEE YOU: Series Two

C H A P T E R S E V E N T E E N

THIRD PERSON POV

They all took off down the hallway, moving cautiously, avoiding stormtroopers as they went. Rounding the corner, the Cara pointed at the door leading to the reactor. "There, Mythrol. Slice that door."

"Here. Use the cylinder code." Greef said, passing the access key to him. The Mythrol inserted it into the security port and instantly the doir slid open, revealing a massive heat shaft. A gantry lined the enormous vertical lava tube. Far below them, the molten rock bubbled orange and ref, and carbon flocked every exposed surface, filling the air with a sulfuric stench. Despite the sufficating atmosphere, Reina felt awfully cold and she shivered.

To their right was a narrow platform that housed the reactor's mechanical board. The Mythrol and Greef started arguing on who was going to cross it and overload the system. Reina's ears began to ring from the constant bickering.

"For the love of the Force, I'll do it!" she yelled, snatching the cylinder code from the Mythrol and marching right up to the platform before anyone could stop her, not even Mando. Minding there was no guardrail, she clung onto the console as she teetered along the platform, her heels just barely hung off the edge. Mando watched with a high level of concern.

"Come on, Beckett." Greef urged impatiently. "Hurry it up."

"You want to trade places?" Reina snapped back. When she eventually reached the main control panel, she steadied her nerves to type in a series of commands. A visual display on the module showed the diagram of the pipes venting coolant, accompanied by an abrupt and unmistakable spike in reactor heat—Everything on the screen blared red, and the alarms around the base began to shriek. "Um...I think that did it!" she shouted.

"Reina!" Mando called to his partner, reaching out to her from the foot of the platform. "Grab my hand!" She locked their wrists together and he pulled her across in his arms in one fell swoop.

"She's gonna blow! Let's get out of here!" the Mythrol panicked.

The five of them ducked through the hatch into the corridor and began running down the hallway, dodging a platoon of troopers as they stepped into another long corridor that they didn't pass through previously. A shudder shocked Reina's body.

"We shouldn't go this way." she halted in her tracks.

"What are you doing, Beckett?" Greef questioned. "This is the quickest way out. Stop lallyiny about!"

"Reina," Mando pulled the reluctant bounty hunter along into what appeared to be a research lab. On either side of the darkened space stood rows of glowing tanks filled with sickening green fluid. Taking a closer look...and it wasn't just fluid...Inside the tubes floated strange, grotesque, deformed humanoid figures. The things had faces, their expressions twisted into sightless and terrible shapes.

"What the..." Greef said.

"I thought you said this was a forward operating base." Cara frowned at the magristrate.

"I thought it was."

"No," Cara shook her head, getting behind a waist-high control console. "This isn't a military operation. This is a lab. We need to get in the system and figure out what's going on."

"What about the reactor?!" the Mythrol asked in a panick.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." Reina keeled over, supporting her suddenly-drained body with her hands on her knees. Her body decided for her and she retched. Mando was there behind her, holding her hair away from her face. This is what I've been feeling this whole time we've been here...Reina confirmed herself. Whatever that feeling was, it was warning me about this...But what is this?

Her head hung down as another round of regurgitation occurred. Simultaneously, Cara had ordered the Mythrol to hack into the system to decipher what the lab was researching. Abruptly, a recorded holographic message sprang alive on the dash. Reina overheard bits of the speaker in the message.

"...the body rejected the blood. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him...we would again require access to the donor..." The speaker paused and drew in a determined breath. "I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon."

"Did he just say—" Reina heaved in deep breaths of her own. The cold feeling when she had entered the lab had escalated in a freezing surge through her bones.

"It has to be an old transmission." Mando said. "Moff Gideon is dead."

"No," the Mythrol shook his head. "This recording is three days old."

A wave of concern passed over Mando and Reina. "If Gideon's alive—"

"Hold it right there!" someone shouted behind them. An instant later, a hail of blaster fire erupted in the room. Mando, protecting Reina, spun aroun and fired back along with Cara and Greef.

"We need to get the kid." Mando said.

"Go. Jet back." Cara told him. "You both are faster that way. We'll up with you in town later."

"Reina, let's go." Mando pulled his partner along, racing down the corridor. Their path led them right back at the heat shaft, the carbon-filled up fogged Reina's silvery vision and clogged her nostrils. The heat from the reactor was already reaching critical mass. "Hang on to me." Reina wrapped her arms around the Mandalorian's neck as he scooped up behind her shoulders and knees. In one of her hands, Reina wielded a blaster to shoot any stormtroopers they came across. Mando burst skyward and rocketed back to town.

He nearly dropped her when he landed on solid ground running. Somehow, Reina's reaction time managed to catch her and skipped across the dirt until she gained her bearings. Mando faced her in a hurry. "You grab the kid. I'll get the Crest ready. Meet me there."

"Right." Reina nodded and sprinted to the school where the child was waiting patiently for her. In his tiny hands were blue cookies wrapped in tin foil, little crumbs covered his mouth. "Come on, little one. We have to hurry." She tucked him in the crook of her arm and hurried back. There were many thoughts spiralling in her mind on the way.

What were those creepy figures in those tubes? Why am I getting these eery feelings? Does it have something to do with the child and that time...when Mando and I turned him over as a bounty?...

Reina reached the Razor Crest just as the thrusters were activated. "I'm here!" she called once she jumped in the cargo hold. She didn't even have time to acknowledge the ship looked brand new. Mando closed the hatch and piloted the ship back to the lava canyon, where he found TIE fighters hunting down and firing upon an Imperial ground Marauder zipping through the canyon and entering the open plain.

"Hang on!" Mando called down to his partner. He took the newly repaired Crest through a series of spinning maneuvers and barrel rolls, evading the TIE fighters hot on his tail. In the cargo hold, Reina strapped herself into a jump seat, the child giggling with delight, snacking on the cookies.

"Din, take us higher." Reina shouted. Mando caught on and grinned underneath his helmet. Pushing the ship harder, he cut off one of the fighters and clipping its sail, causing it to trail and spiral into the planet's surface, belching up smoke and flames.

Down below, Reina had no idea what was happening. But the ship was performing fancy maneuvers, taking out the last of the enemy. Eventually, the ship leveled out and she took it as her cue to undo her seatbelt and head up to the cockpit, upon entering, Mando was bidding farewells to Greef and Cara. The Mandalorian glanced back behind him, chuckling. "Not bad, huh, kid?"

"You really did a number on them." Reina smirked. "I'm sorry I missed the show."

The ship exited Nevarro's atmosphere and punched into the coordinates for Corvus. "We're finally on our way to find the Jedi Ahsoka Tano." Reina breathed, not really believing it.

"Yes." Mando nodded and pushed the lever forward, and the ship zipped into hyperspace.