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supermarvelgirl15 · 3 years

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Home- Chapter 5 (The Reckoning)

Summary: An old contact extends an invitation to the Mandalorian and Jesla to make peace with their enemies. Jesla learns something new about what the Jedi are capable of.

Pairing: Eventual Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) × OC!Jesla Gavdo

Word Count: 4,020

Warnings: None really

A/N: So the reason this took forever was because I wrote half of it, and my laptop crashed and didn't save, so I had to rewrite it. Anyway, I'm actually excited about writing the next chapter. Enjoy!

Series Masterlist // Main Masterlist

××××××

“My friend, if you are receiving this transmission that means you are alive. You might be surprised to hear this but I am alive too. I guess we can call it even. A lot has happened since we last saw each other. The man who hired you is still here, and his ranks of ex-Imperial guards have grown. They have imposed despotic rule over my city, which has impeded the livelihood of the Guild. We consider him an enemy, but we cannot get close enough to take him out. If you would consider one last commission, I will very much make it worth your while. You have been successful so far in staving off their hunters. But they will not stop until they have their prize. So here is my proposition: Return to Nevarro, bring the Child as bait. I will arrange an exchange and provide loyal Guild members as protection. Once we get near the client, you kill him, and we both get what we want. If you succeed, you keep the Child and I will have your name cleared with the Guild, for a man of honor should not be forced to live in exile. I await your arrival with optimism.”

Jesla and Din both watched the older man's- whose name Jesla came to find out was Greef Karga- hologram message. Jesla looks back at the Child who was asleep, contemplating what their course of action should be. She knew that they couldn't run away forever.

“I think we should go,” Mando speaks up, turning his chair to face her.

“We don't exactly have a choice,” Jesla scoffs, crossing her arms. “We're going to need to recruit some help,” she adds.

Mando tilts his head, the incredulous look he's currently giving Jesla hidden by his helmet. “Wouldn't that be overkill? We're enough,” he shares, recalling the incidents with both Toro and Xi'an.

Jesla she shakes her head. “I can't use my abilities around the Empire. It'll just make our situation worse than what it already is,” she tells him as her fingers start to tap the side of her leg once again. Din realized that she would do that whenever she felt uneasy about something.

Din sighs, turning back to face the control panel. He spares a look at the sleeping Child before setting a course that Jesla and him were familiar with, and the Razor Crest jumps into hyperspace.

∞∞∞

The duo walk into a common house on Sorgan, seeing Cara Dune win a laser tethered boxing match with a male Zabrak. As the patrons hand Cara her winnings, she notices them approaching her.

“Looking for some work?”

They all sit at a table, Cara and Jesla helping their selves to some spotchka as Mando starts explaining their situation to Dune. It seemed like a straightforward operation since Karga and his men were providing the plan and the firepower. Mando and the kid were the snares while Jesla and Cara would be their backup in case anything went south.

Cara shook her head as she took a sip from her glass of spotchka. “I don't know. I've been advised to lay low. If anybody runs my chain code, I'll rot in a cell for the rest of my life,” she tells them.

“I thought you were a veteran,” Mando queries with a tilt of his helmet.

“I've been a lot 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...” Cara starts before Mando interrupts her.

“I have a ship. We can bring you there and back with a handsome reward. You can live free of worry,” Din bargains.

“I'm already free of worry. And I'm not in the mood to play soldier anymore. Especially fighting some local warlord,” Cara shrugs, placing her now empty cup on the table.

Jesla takes a swig of her drink before looking up at the dropper. “He's not a local warlord. He's Imperial,” she informs her.

Dune makes direct eye contact with the ex-sharpshooter, a smirk working its way on her face. “I'm in.”

∞∞∞

The Razor Crest flies through space as the group of outlaws prepare for their upcoming mission. Jesla was nervous about going up against the New Empire. As far as everyone knew, she had blew up with the second Death Star. If they found out that she was still alive... Well, she didn't want to think about those consequences. She just had to make sure that no one recognized her.

Karga didn't even know that her and Cara would be accompanying the Mandalorian and the Child. Hopefully, that wouldn't be a problem. At first, Cara was confused as of why they were going to help someone that neither of them trusted in the first place, but once she realized that they didn't exactly have a choice, she understood.

And after a little incident with the Child trying to fly the ship, they realized that they needed someone to watch him. Luckily, Mando knew someone that he trusted enough with such a task.

Jesla watched from the cockpit window as they landed near a moisture farm on Arvala-7, an Ugnaught trying to tame his blurrgs. Mando had told her that this was the planet where he had found the Child.

The Ugnaught gladly invites them all inside his residence, all of them having to bend down to get through the doorway. They all take a seat in the hut, Jesla promptly observing the inside of the house. In her subconscious, she noted her exits and anything that could be used as a weapon. She couldn't help it.

“It hasn't grown much,” the Ugnaught comments as he looks over the Child.

“I think it might be a strand-cast,” Din suggests as he too looks over the kid.

“I don't think it was engineered. I've worked in the gene farms. This one looks evolved. Too ugly. This one on the other hand,” the Ugnaught points at Cara, “looks like she was farmed in the Cytocaves of Nora.”

“This is Cara Dune. She was a shock-trooper,” Mando introduces her. Din makes eye contact with Jesla through his visor. “And this is Jesla Gavdo. She was an Imperial sharpshooter.”

The Ugnaught looks Jesla up and down, as if accessing her. “I too served on the other side, I'm afraid. But I'm proud to say that I paid out my clan's debt and now I serve no one but myself,” he tells her. Jesla nods in understanding, not missing the look Cara gives them both out of the corner of her eye.

Then an IG unit enters the building with a tray. Cara, Din, and Jesla all jump up and draw their blasters on the droid. “Would anyone care for some tea?” It asks them nonchalantly.

“Please lower your blasters. He will not harm you,” the Ugnaught informs them.

“That thing is programmed to kill the baby,” Mando says bitterly, not taking his blaster off the IG unit.

“Not anymore.”

IG-11 continues to pour a glass of tea as the Ugnaught tells them all about how he found the IG unit left behind by the Mandalorian and how he reprogrammed it. He told them about the slow and difficult process that he endured to reconstruct the droid. Jesla carefully watched Mando during the Ugnaught's explanation. She knew he would always have his doubts about the droid. Who could blame him?

They all simultaneously lower their blasters and sit back down around the table. Jesla gladly accepts the droid's offered cup of tea, taking a small sip of it. She didn't really know this Ugnaught long enough to trust him, but she did trust Mando. And his judgement was good enough for her.

∞∞∞

Jesla, Cara, and Mando sit in the Razor Crest's cockpit on the way to Nevarro while the Ugnaught, Kuiil, works on a new crib for the Child down in the hangar. Jesla cleans her blaster, making sure it was in working order. She doubted that she would need her MK, but she was going to bring it anyway. Her blaster was her main focus at the moment though.

“Do you know what station the Imperial officer is?” Cara asks Jesla, making her stop her movements on the blaster.

“No, I didn't lay eyes on him before we ditched Nevarro. Mando took out his safe house when he snatched the kid. They've definitely reinforced their troops since then,” Jesla answers her.

IG-11 then appears in the entryway of the cockpit. “I have prepared second meal. Would you care to be served here or below?” He questions everyone.

Before Jesla could respond, Mando beats her to it. “I'm not hungry,” he says shortly. Cara and Jesla share a look as the IG unit leaves without another word. “Under no circumstances does that thing leave the ship,” he states.

“You got a real thing for droids, don't you,” Cara observes. Jesla sits quietly as she waits for Mando's response. She wondered if he would tell Cara why he hates them.

“I got a real thing for that droid,” Mando replies, gesturing to where IG-11 had walked out.

Cara side-eyes Jesla as her brows knit together. “The Ugnaught said he rewired it,” she reminds him.

“That droid was designed to kill things. I don't care how much wiring he replaced, it goes against its nature,” Din spits out angrily. Jesla's eyes soften as she continues to watch him, knowing exactly how he felt about the topic.

Shooting Jesla another look, Cara stands up. “Well, shouldn't be a long job anyway. You take out the head Imp, the rest will run like rats,” she says before she leaves the cockpit.

A sigh escapes Mando's modulator as he turns to look at Jesla from over his shoulder. “You should go eat. We still have a while left until we get to Nevarro,” he tells her, pressing some buttons on the control panel.

Jesla nods as she stands up, placing her weapons in her seat. “I'll bring you up something,” she says before she too descends down the stairs into the hangar.

Din turns to look after her, another sigh leaving his lips. He wasn't sure how he felt about his new friend. She was a lot like him in some ways, but there was still something that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

∞∞∞

After what felt like forever to Jesla, Mando finally lands the Razor Crest on the deserted surface of Nevarro. Everyone, except for IG-11, mount on the blurrgs and exit the ship, meeting Greef Karga and his three associates outside.

“Sorry for the remote rendezvous, Mando. But things have gotten complicated since you were last here. It appears that introductions are in order. It seems we've both provided a security detail,” Greef Karga observes as his eyes scan over Jesla, Cara, and Kuiil. His eyes land on Jesla's MK-modified rifle strapped over her shoulder. “I guess you were the sniper that took out some of my men that night,” he puts together, his hands going to rest on his hips. Jesla just gives him a once over as she proceeds to not respond to him.

Karga realizes that he isn't going to get anything out of her and turns his attention back to Mando. “Now, where's the little one?” He questions as he looks around for it.

Mando moves the floating crib towards him. Greef opens it and his eyes widen as they land on the Child. “So... this little bogwing is what all the fuss was about,” he takes the Child out of the crib, “what a precious little creature. I can see why you didn't wanna harm a hair on its wrinkled little head.” He gives him a once over before placing him back in the crib. “Well, I'm glad this matter will be put to rest once and for all.”

Din calls the crib back to him. “The sun drops fast on Nevarro. We can walk for a spell and camp out on the river bank, then make our way into town at first light,” Karga informs them before turning to lead the way. Din looks back at his new friends, following Karga with them right behind him.

Once night fell, they all decided to set up a makeshift camp for the rest of the night. One of Karga's bounty hunters had put a piece of meat over the fire to cook. Jesla watches as Kuiil feeds the Child, the members of Karga's group eyeing each other suspiciously.

“I guess the little bugger's a carnivore. Never seen anything like it. They were ready to pay a king's ransom for that thing. Must be for some kind of highfalutin menagerie,” Greef comments, looking at Mando.

“Let's go over the plan again,” Mando says, stirring the conversation back to business. That was, as always, Mando for you.

“We both enter the common house. We show the client the bait. We join him at the table, and you kill him,” Karga explains simply with a shrug.

Jesla turns to face both Greef and Mando. “What about his reinforcements? Surely he's upped his security since last time,” she points out. She knew how these Imperial officers worked.

A look of surprise briefly flashes across Karga's features. “No more than four. He travels with, at most, a fire team. Trust me, nothing could go wrong,” he tells her as he gets up and grabs the piece of meat that was over the fire. Jesla shook her head. That didn't sound right.

Suddenly, a winged creature swoops in and grabs the meat out of Greef's hands. Everyone goes into a frenzy after that. They all start shooting at the dragon creatures, Mando closing the crib to protect the Child. Dragons start grabbing blurrgs, even one of Karga's bounty hunters.

Another dragon attacks the Mandalorian, both Jesla and Cara shooting it to get it off of him. He luckily fights it off by blasting it with fire. After that, the remaining dragons disappear. It's not until then when Jesla and the others notice that Greef was badly injured.

Cara immediately springs into action, checking Karga's arm where the dragon ripped it open. “This is bad. The poison is spreading fast,” she informs them as she spills out the contents of her med-pack. She gives him a shot, but it doesn't seem to help.

Jesla watches as the Child walks up to them as Cara frantically tries to help Karga. Everyone watches as the Child places his hand over his wound, Jesla tilting her head in curiosity. The Child's face relaxes as Greef's wound closes, immediately falling asleep right after.

Din looks up at Jesla, watching as emotion after emotion flashes through her eyes. He wasn't sure what was going through her head. It was obvious that she didn't know that the kid was capable of doing such a thing, let alone herself.

∞∞∞

The next morning, they all set out to continue their trek to the town. Jesla walks behind the group, the events of last night still fresh in her mind. She absentmindedly watches Mando and Cara converse with one another in front of her, but she didn't hear anything that they were saying.

Her eyes drift to the crib that was floating beside Mando, the Child hidden in it. She wondered how he did it, if she could do it. Did she have the ability to save so many people that were dear to her and she didn't even know?

The Mandalorian looks back over his shoulder, seeing Jesla lost in her thoughts. With a nod to Cara, he falls back to walk beside Jesla. She didn't even notice his presence until he spoke to her.

“Did you... know that he could do... whatever that was?” He asks her, looking straight ahead. He himself was still surprised at the new information.

“No,” she answers shortly. She didn't mean to be short with him, but her emotions were starting to get the best of her. Jesla knew that she was overreacting, but she couldn't stop the guilt that was slowly taking over her.

You could have saved your brothers. You could have saved your master.

Din sees the internal conflict going on inside his partner. He wasn't sure what he could say to make her feel better. He didn't know how to talk about these things, wasn't trained to do it. His mind drifts back to the time of his life before the droids attacked. His mother would probably know what to say in this situation, so would his father.

He opens his mouth to say something, but is stopped when Karga and his men halt ahead of them. “I guess this is it,” Karga announces to the group.

Before either Din or Jesla could register what was going on, Greef suddenly spins around with his two blasters and shoots his two bounty hunters. He then immediately raises his blasters in capitulation as the others train their own blasters on him.

“There's something you should know. The plan was to kill you and take the kid. But after what happened last night I couldn't go through with it. Go on, you can gun me down here and now, and it wouldn't violate the Code. But if you do, this child will never be safe,” Karga quickly explains to them.

“We'll take our chances,” Cara tells him, her finger on the trigger.

Karga's eyes widen slightly as he tries to save himself. “The Imperial client is obsessed with obtaining this asset. You tried to run, but where did it get you? Listen. We both need the client to be eliminated. Let me take the Child to him, and then you three--”

“No.”

“Let's just kill him and get outta here.”

“He's right.”

Both Cara and Jesla shoot Mando an incredulous look. As he lowers his blaster, Jesla sighs before reluctantly following suit. What was going through his head?

“As long as the Imp lives he'll send hunters after the Child,” Mando points out. Jesla knew that he was right, but she also knew that this whole thing could be a trap.

“Bring me. Tell him you captured me. Get me close to him, and I'll kill him,” Mando tells Karga. Now he was being insane, especially when he handed Karga his blaster.

However, Jesla knew how stubborn this beskar cladded man could be, so she knew that there was no way he was going to change his mind. “Well, I'm coming with you,” she states, Cara also jumping in.

“No, no, no. That would make them suspicious,” Karga opposes as he shakes his head in disagreement. Both Jesla and Cara shrug, not caring less.

“Tell ’em they caught me. I have a plan. Kuiil, ride back to the Razor Crest with the Child and seal yourself in. When you're inside, engage ground security protocols, and nothing on this planet will breach those doors,” Mando orders, turning to face Kuiil.

Kuiil nods as he walks up to him. “Here's a comlink. I will keep the Child safe,” he turns to Cara, “don't forget to cover your stripes,” he reminds her. He then takes the Child out of the crib and hops on the remaining blurrg, heading in the direction of the Razor Crest.

Mando hands Karga his handcuffs, Karga placing them on him as Cara covers her tattoo with a piece of fabric. Jesla made sure to take off her hood and mask, anything to hide her real identity from the Empire. They didn't know her face, only her name.

“Let's go.”

∞∞∞

The group walk up to the entrance of town, greeted by Stormtroopers standing guard. Jesla tenses up once she sees them, subconsciously trying to hide as she stands on the other side of the Mandalorian.

Greef produces his ID card for the Stormtrooper to scan his chain code and they continue on their way. More Stormtroopers march pass them and Cara comments on how Karga said there was only supposed to be four.

“Four guarding the client. Many more here in town. Things got really heated once Mando crashed the safe house.”

Once they finally get to the common house, the door opens to reveal the Imperial officer and four Stormtroopers. Jesla didn't recognize the officer, but then again, she didn't really pay attention to them.

“Look what I brought you. As promised,” Karga greets the officer, gesturing to Mando. Cara and Jesla share a look before looking back at the client.

The client approaches them, caressing Mando's beskar armor. “What exquisite craftmanship. It is amazing how beautiful beskar can be when forged by its ancestral artisans. Can I offer you a libation to celebrate the closing of our shared narrative?” He asks, looking back at Greef.

Karga nods and shoves Mando to sit in the booth, Cara and Jesla standing beside the table. The officer also sits as more Stormtroopers enter the building. “It is a shame that your people suffered so. Just as in this situation, it was all avoidable. Why did Mandalore resist our expansion? The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric. Safety. Prosperity. Trade. Opportunity. Peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos,” he rambles before adding, “I would like to see the baby.”

“Uh...it is asleep,” Karga fibs, glancing over to the pod.

“We all will be quiet. Open the pram,” the client orders as he reaches for the pod. Luckily, a Stormtrooper comes over and whispers something to him, making him halt his movements. “Don't think me to be rude. I must take this call,” he apologizes before walking away.

Mando takes the opportunity to loosen his cuffs under the table. “Gimme the blaster,” he whispers to Karga. Greef obliges as he sneakily hands it to him, making note of the extra Stormtroopers.

“This is bad. You said four,” Jesla whisper yells, her eyes scanning over the multiple Stormtroopers. However, she knew they could most likely take them. It would just cause a big scene.

“Well...there are more. What can I tell you?” Greef replies gruffly, both Jesla and Cara rolling their eyes.

All of a sudden, the client goes down as blaster shots are fired through the window, peppering inside the common house and killing everyone inside, except for the outlaws. Once the shooting stops, they all move out of cover to both sides of the window. An Imperial firing squad sits outside, another transport of Stormtroopers arriving.

Cara turns to Karga with a glare. “Four Stormtroopers?”

Din takes out his comlink, bringing it close to where his mouth would be. “Kuiil, are you back to the ship yet? Are you there? Do you copy?” He questions frantically.

“Yes!”

“Are you back to the ship yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Get back to the ship and bail! Get the kid out of here. We're pinned down!”

Jesla tenses up when her eyes land on a TIE fighter landing outside. Her fingers itch towards her lightsaber hidden beneath her cloak as a man exits the TIE fighter to stand in front of the common house. She knew if she used it, she would be on the New Empire's radar. Was she ready for that?

“You have something I want,” the man states aloud to them. Jesla looks him up and down, not recognizing him. Who was this guy?

“You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of. But you do not,” the man continues. Was he talking about the Child?

Looking to Mando, Jesla sees him trying to get through to Kuiil. “Kuiil, are you back to the ship yet? They're on to us. Kuiil, come in!”

“In a few moments, it will be mine. It means more to me than you will ever know.”

“Kuiil... Are you there?! Come in, Kuiil! Kuiil, come in! Kuiil! Are you there?! Do you copy?! Kuiil! Kuiil!”

When Kuiil doesn't answer, Mando looks over to Jesla and she can feel his desperation. This was not going well.

××××××

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