Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Odd Bounty ❯ Shifting Gears ( Chapter 8 )

She came to slowly and tried to lift her right hand to rub her eyes but it felt weird...like it was absent and when she looked down, vision still a little blurred, shock and horror filled her.

Her arm was missing.

"You definitely pack a punch, little lady."

"Who are you? Why did you take my arm?"

The man laughed, "I didn't take it. I shot it off. There's a difference. Oh, and my name is Heryns."

"Where is Mando?"

"Oh, he's probably dead by now. My two 'associates' would have been more than enough for him even with all that Beskar."

Telana shook her head in disbelief, "No. I don't believe you. He is strong. He will find you and kill you."

Heryns laughed, "I really doubt that, beautiful. I overheard your little conversation through the wiretap in your suite. You're just a droid, albeit quite a looker, but still a droid. He hates you. You really think if he's still alive that he'll come for you? He's probably glad to be rid of you."

"No! He was angry. He didn't mean it."

The man lifted up a small device and clicked it and his voice echoed in the small ship.

'You're a droid, Telana. To me, you stopped being human the day he put those cybernetic parts in you. You're a machine...a thing pretending to be that man's daughter. Do you know what droids did when the Empire sent them to my village? The droids slaughtered everyone because they were ordered to and they follow their programming. My...my parents were murdered right in front of me by a droid. So yes I hate droids. I hate you.'

He rewound the recording and pressed play again.

'So yes, I hate droids. I hate you.'

Again he rewound it.

'I hate you.'

"STOP!!" she screamed at him, viciously fighting against her bindings, her muscles straining to break free. He laughed.

Again it played.

'You're a machine...' It whirred forward, 'I hate you.'

'I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I'm a friend.'

'Stay down!'

He had been so worried. So kind. But then he found out what she was...what she held within her body and he changed.

He had pointed the blaster straight at her, his hand shaking.

She had been so confused in that moment, not understanding why not until that night.

'You stopped being human the day he put those cybernetic parts in you. You're a machine...a thing pretending to be that man's daughter.'

'I hate you.'

And she broke then, shoulders shaking as loud gasping sobs tore from her throat and she shuddered as those three little words dug further into her mind. Despair and pain flooded her chest, threatening to tear her heart apart at the seams. 

He wasn't going to come for her.

He was right.

Why would he?

He hated her.

Heryns gripped her chin and she recoiled, the remains of her right arm flailing as she tried to get away.

"Now you understand, don't you? No one is coming to get you. You are property and the Empire is going to give me a nice, hefty sum of credits for your return. You are damaged, yes, but I doubt they'll be too upset by it. They can always build you a new arm."

He patted her cheek, "Now you be a good girl and sit here quietly...or I'll shoot off your other arm."

She sniffled, nodding as he let her head drop back down.

"I'm glad we've reached an understanding."

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

He was in a small cot on the ship, helmet just next to his head. The door was shut and locked tightly. He needed to get some sleep. He would need it for what was coming but sleep just wasn't coming to him.

He knew Fett was sleeping in the cockpit, ship on autopilot. And Beler...Beler was still awake, surprisingly.

Auralia.

It was her mother's name...

He snorted softly, he didn't even remember his mother's name. He just remembered the soft press of her lips on his forehead when she kissed him goodnight. How his father's hands were warm and calloused as they ruffled his hair.

The beacon was next to him in the cot, light flashing fast. Heryns was close...Telana was close.

'You have two paths before you...'

One of hate...or one of forgiveness.

He had first scoffed at the idea...him forgive a droid? He should have realized that it was forgiving himself that he needed to do. Forgiving himself for forgetting his parents' faces, his mother's voice. Forgiveness for not being strong enough to save them. Forgiveness for forgetting how happy he had been...how happy he could still be but he was still so stuck in that one moment in his past that he failed to keep a hold of those happy moments, letting them fade into obscurity. He had thrown himself whole-heartedly into bounty hunting that he had lost that part of himself. Buried the scared, little boy he was under years of rage and hate and Telana...with one little gesture...shifted everything...pulled him unwillingly out of his armor and forced him to face those memories."

He thought back to the panic attack he had had. The only other one was when he put on the helmet for the first time. He remembered how softly she had wrapped her arms around him and how she gently reminded him to breathe. That it was okay.

Then the press of her lips against his hands when the rage took hold of him again and how he had felt so grounded in that moment.

And the anger that had coursed through him at how innocent she was. An innocence that had been ripped from him.

He ran a hand over his face, shocked to find wetness there on his cheeks.

Tears.

He was crying.

He had been jealous of her...of her innocence...of her wide-eyed wonder at the galaxy around them.

She reminded him too much of the kid and as much as it had hurt, it scared him more.

He chuckled to himself at that. He had been scared for her. He wasn't a good man...he was just trying to survive as best he knew how...and this life didn't treat innocence all too kindly. So how was he to help her?

And so he tore at her, constantly reminding her of her cybernetic parts. That she wasn't human anymore.

He had been an absolute ass.

'She is...innocent to how the galaxy works and does not understand the danger she is in. She is...delicate.'

The doctor was right, she was delicate and he needed to protect her. He wanted to protect her.

But the real question...

Would she want him to protect her?