Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

26

Astera:

"Are you sure your parlour's safe?" Omega glanced up at Cid, as grumpy as ever as she stomped through the streets with her staff slamming heavily down with each step she took.

"Bolo and Ketch said the Pykes already came for Roland. I told you. They don't take kindly to unpaid debts." She kept her eyes firmly forward, but I noticed the tense set to her shoulders, the sharper than average words. Despite her bluster, even she wasn't entirely sure. She punched the button for the door, stepping inside and walking into the middle without even flinching. "See? My plan worked like a charm. Even better than expected."

If a charm included the numerous guards Roland had brought with him, more than I thought he'd had, dead and slumped on the floor in various crooked positions. Blaster holes were bored into their heads, their stomachs, their chests. I already knew that the Pykes were nasty when it came to unfinished business, but even this chilled me to the bone. It was straight slaughter. Omega was slightly green, taking in the scene.

Three Pykes emerged from the side room, dragging along a bound Roland. He was pushed roughly in front of them, pointing a long finger directly at Cid. "That's her. She's the one you want."

So they'd been waiting for us. A fact that only became more clear when Roland hurriedly backed away and the lead Pyke took his place, expressionless mask somehow more threatening than if we had been able to see his face. "It has come to my attention that you have stolen our shipment of spice. Return it to us, and we will consider this issue resolved."

Cid blanched, fear showing in her reptilian eyes for perhaps the first time I'd ever seen.

"Not sure what he's been telling you, but we don't have any spice." Her eyes darted from Pyke to Pyke, looking for any sort of tell. She wasn't technically lying, but they didn't know we'd lost it to the beasts. And right now, we were the only suspects. They were more likely to just kill us to make it even.

"Kill them all." My suspicions were confirmed as the Pyke stepped back, the other two cocking blasters and raising them to point at the closest of us to them - Cid and me.

"Wait." Hunter stopped them both before they could even take a step. Omega was discreetly pushed behind him, shielding her with his body. Good. I would have done it first, had I not been focused on the blaster at my chest with my hands resting on my own, deceptively casual. It would be a bad move to pull guns on the Pykes, especially when they had been slighted. "We don't have the spice on us, but we know where it is."

"My patience is wearing very thin." Despite the thinly veiled threat, the Pyke held up a hand, stalling the other two. "If you know where the spice is, then you should have no problem retrieving it. Until you do, the child stays here."

"Not happening." Hunter's blaster was suddenly in his hands. The mention of Omega had me forgetting everything earlier, abandoning all pretence of calm and also pulling out my weapon to aim at them. The other three clones did the same, not even bothering to hide protecting Omega any longer.

"She isn't going anywhere with you," I snarled at them, fingers itching to pull the triggers.

"You misunderstand," The Pyke responded silkily, the undertones of a threat still layering his artificially modulated voice. The lack of expression on their moulded masks somehow made them more threatening - unforgiving and cold. "This is not a negotiation."

Cid's head whipped back and forth between us and the Pykes, twitching eyes searching for a way to defuse the situation before shots were fired.

"If I may," she hedged, carefully watching the Pykes in an attempt to gauge their reaction. There was no sound from them, waiting for her to speak. And watching the six blasters trained on them.