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NATALIA WALKED alongside the Mandalorian as she carried the child into the cantina. Sorgan was just as peaceful as the last time they had arrived. Well, aside from the mini fight going on between Cara Dune and another local. Natalia figured the fight was a game they played based on the orange electric chain trapping the two together.
A look of shock was quick to form over Natalia's face as she watched Cara throw a man that was probably two times the size of her to the ground and wrapped the chain around his neck. A laugh came from the child in Natalia's arms and she looked down to see it watching the fight before them intensely with a wide smile on it's face. The man groaned before realizing he couldn't win and tapped the belt twice making the orange electric chain go away. Cara smiled and put her hands up in the air as the people all sitting at the bar cheered for her.
"Pay up, mudscuffers!" Cara called and quickly a group of people walked over to her, smiling widely as they handed her credits. "That's mine. Thank you."
Natalia and the Mandalorian slowly walked over to Cara as the crowd of people handing her credits began to disperse. "You think she'll take it?" The Mandalorian asked.
"No, I don't." Natalia said as she placed the now squirming child on the ground. "She seems happy here."
"Yeah, she does." The Mandalorian nodded. "But there's no harm in trying."
Cara turned to face the three with a wide smile on her face. The smile only slightly faltered once she saw them but she was quick to greet them. "It's good to see you again." Natalia greeted with a small smile.
"Looking for some work?" The Mandalorian asked, wasting no time in getting straight to the point.
Cara shook her head with a chuckle, of course that's why they were here. But nevertheless she followed the three over towards a table and sat down. Cara had ordered a drink while the Mandalorian explained the mission to her.
"It seems like a straightforward operation." The Mandalorian finished his explanation as the bartender poured Cara's drink. "They're providing the plan and firepower. I'm the snare."
"With the kid?" Cara questioned.
"That's why I'm coming to you."
"I don't know. I've been advised to lay low." Cara sarcastically replied, earning a smirk from Natalia. But Cara's smile was quick to fall as she spoke her next words."If anybody runs my chain code, I'll rot in a cell for the rest of my life."
"I thought you were a veteran?" The Mandalorian asked, growing just as confused as Natalia was.
A hand placed credits down on the table next to Natalia and she turned to see the man Cara had been fighting before standing there. "Come back soon." Cara said with a smile as the man walked off once the man was fully out of view Cara turned back to the trio. "I've been a lot of things since. Most of them carry a life sentence. If I so much as book passage on a ship registered to the New Republic, I'm..."
"I have a ship." The Mandalorian interrupted. "I can bring you there and back with a handsome reward. You can live free of worry."
"I'm already free of worry, and I'm not in the mood to play soldier anymore. Especially fighting some local warlord. Besides, you have Natalia." Cara said as she gestured towards the girl.
Natalia understood Cara's doubts. Her dad had told her the same thing multiple times whenever she tried to convince him to allow them to join the Rebellion. But like her father Natalia intended to convince Cara that there was still some fight left to give and luckily for her, if Cara was like any other member of the Rebellion, she knew exactly what to say.
"He's not a local warlord. He's Imperial." Natalia stated.
Cara turned to Natalia as she took a drink from her cup. "You should've just started with that."
_oOo_
The ship ride to pick up the ugnaught the Mandalorian had befriended during Natalia's days as a bounty was one Natalia never wanted to have again. While Cara and Natalia were down picking weapons with the Mandalorian, the child managed to take control of the ship and well you could say it ended with a few bruises.
"It hasn't grown much." The ugnaught pointed out as he examined the child.
"I think it might be a Strand-Cast." The Mandalorian said.
"I don't think it was engineered. I've worked in the gene farms. This one looks evolved. Too ugly." The ugnaught said as he gestured towards the child. "This one on the other hand," he gestured to Cara. "Looks like she was farmed in the Cytocaves of Nora."
"This is Cara Dune. She was a shock trooper." The Mandalorian introduced.
"You were a dropper?" Ugnaught asked as he looked to the bands tattooed on Cara's arm.
A skeptical look formed on Cara's face as she looked down to the tatoo on her arm them back up to the ugnaught. "Did you serve?"
"On the other side, I'm afraid." The ugnaught said as he sat down beside Natalia. "But I'm proud to say that I paid out my clan's debt, and now I serve no one but myself."
Natalia knew Cara was set on edge by this new piece of information. The look that had taken over her face as she stared at the ugnaught was the very same one Natalia used to give Darth Vader. Natalia knew not everyone in the Empire was willingly there. She had seen many planets suffer under their hand, her home world of Mandalore being one of them. People had been sold into the Empire, working for them as slaves until the day they could buy themselves out, but that was if they were lucky. So when Natalia looked at the ugnaught she did not see an enemy, or a threat. She saw a survivor.
The clank of a droid's feet suddenly sounded behind Natalia and she spun around to see the IG unit the Mandalorian had teamed up with when he had found her and the child. The same IG unit Natalia had put a shot through. Cara and the Mandalorian instantly jumped up from their chairs, pulling out their blasters as they did so. Natalia went to reach for her own but was stopped once the Mandalorian grabbed her arm and yanked her behind him.
"Would anyone care for some tea?" The droid asked as it walked towards them, holding the tray of tea and cups out. A confused look formed on Natalia's face as she stared at the droid from behind the Mandalorian.
"Please lower you're weapons." The ugnaught said as he rose from his seat. "He will not harm you."
"That thing is programmed to kill the baby and Natalia." The Mandalorian sternly replied as his grip on his blaster tightened.
"Not anymore." Kuill said with a small shake of his head. The IG unit set the tray on the table in front of them and Natalia's confusion only grew but seeing no real threat to the child or herself, she stepped out from behind the Mandalorian and placed her hand on top of his blaster, lowering it.
"It was left behind in the wake of your destruction. I found it laying where it fell. Devoid of all life." The ugnaught began to explain. "I recovered the flotsam and staked it as my own in accordance with the Charter of the New Republic. Little remained of it's neural harness. Reconstruction was quite difficult. But not impossible. It had to learn everything form scratch. This is something that cannot be taught with the twist of a spanner."
"Is it still a hunter." The Mandalorian finally asked the million dollar question.
"No." The ugnaught replied. "But it will protect."
The droid and the Mandalorian both stared at each other and Natalia just knew the Mandalorian was planning a million different ways to kill the droid. But the droid merely raised his hand with a cup of tea out to the Mandlorian. "Tea?"
