Bounty Hunter Anon III

by Sunny Solaire

Simmering Down

After almost an hour of walking through the thick jungle while carrying Soarin' on your back, you finally make it back to your ship. The trek was long, frustrating, and uncomfortably silent, apart from his occasional whimpering and pained cries. Lucky for him, you didn't run into any more vornskr out here, otherwise you would've fed him to them.

You let out a relieved sigh as you get a glimpse of your ship again. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Big Mac are all outside waiting for you. When they see you, they all come rushing toward you.

"Sunset, you're okay!" Fluttershy exclaims.

You nod silently as they all approach. Big Mac reaches you first, so you start to remove Soarin' from your back.

"Lock him up..." You growl, completely free of sympathy.

Twilight stares at Soarin' in shock as Big Mac takes him off your hands and starts to carry him toward the ship. "What in the world did you do to him, Sunset?" She asks.

"I let him live, Twilight... Against my better judgement, I let him live. That's what I did to him..." You say as you glare at her. "You told me that you wanted him alive, but you failed to specify how alive you wanted him to be..."

Twilight and Fluttershy both give you a fearful look as you stomp after Big Mac. You are so done for today.

As Big Mac carries him up the ramp to the ship, Soarin' looks back at you as you follow. His breaths are still shaky and his eyes are full of fear. All that bravado and cockiness from before is completely gone now.

Big Mac carries him into the cargo hold and sets him down on the cot in the cage. You simply stand in the doorway and watch him. He turns to you. "He needs medical attention, Sunset."

"He'll get some. Later." You reply bluntly.

Big Mac hesitates and looks back at Soarin' for a moment before standing up straight and leaving him on the cot. He looks at you as you stand there menacingly.

"If you could start working on the ship now, I'd appreciate it, Big Mac." You growl.

He gulps and nods nervously. "E-Eeyup."

That's the first time you've ever seen Big Mac scared.

He quickly leaves the room. Soarin' looks at him in desperation as he leaves him alone with you. You close the door to the cargo hold behind you and walk toward his cage. He shakes violently as he watches your every move. His eyes are like pinpricks. He tries to squirm away to the opposite side of the cot, but his injuries prevent him from doing so. He's stuck exactly where he is. He knows it, and you know it.

You reach into the cage and close the barred door, locking him inside. As you stare at each other silently for a few more seconds, you reach up and remove your helmet so he can see your face. You glare at him with eyes of fury and anger and reach up to wipe away some dried blood from your lip.

"Twice... Twice have I held your life in my hands... And twice have I returned it back to you... The next time..." You step forward and grip the bars, making sure he's paying attention to you. "...Your life belongs to me... And I will take it from you as slowly, and as painfully as I can... Do you understand me?"

Soarin' shakes in fear and nods his head rapidly. You never take your eyes off his. You don't even blink.

"Never threaten me, or my friends ever again... Got it?" He nods again, his lip quivering in terror. "Good boy."

You release your grip on the cage and finally break eye contact as you turn around and head out into the main hold. As you exit, you turn around to stare at him one more time before closing the door to the cargo hold and locking it.

You look around at the main hold. Twilight, Fluttershy, Spike, and Big Mac are all looking at you in silence. They're all nervous.

Why shouldn't they be? An angry, stressed out Mandalorian is the last thing anyone wants to see.

You stare at them all for a moment as you walk to your room and head inside. Fluttershy whimpers once, but no one says a word. Hopefully it stays this quiet for a while. You've earned a rest.

You enter your room and close the door behind you, giving a sigh of relief as you're finally alone.

---

After laying down for a little over an hour and trying to gather your bearings, you finally managed to calm down enough to the point where you felt ready to socialize again. All that rage you had let out against Soarin' all at once had to have made everyone else feel uncomfortable, in addition to being nervous.

He was pretty messed up. You did that to him. They saw what you were capable of. You gave them a reason to fear you, but you don't want them to fear you. You want them to think of you as a friend.

Everything you did against Soarin', the droids, and the vornskr was to protect them. They were in trouble, and only you were capable of protecting them. Still, you feel the need to apologize for how you handled yourself. You probably could have been a bit more tempered while you were out there.

You take a deep breath and exhale as you open the door to your room and step into the main hold again. Twilight is talking to Spike on the holotable, while Big Mac is walking out of the cockpit. He's followed by Fluttershy. As you exit, everyone freezes and looks at you with caution and hesitation. Fluttershy takes a small step away from you to hide behind Big Mac, but continues watching you.

You sigh and turn to Twilight.

She gulps once and smiles softly. "H-Hi, Sunset."

"Hello, Twilight." You blink slowly.

"Are you feeling better?" She asks.

You nod. "Much."

She seems to relax a little bit more, but she's still tense. Fluttershy and Big Mac are as well.

"Look." You sigh, rubbing the back of your neck. "I would just like to say that I'm very sorry for the way I reacted to this whole situation... It was just so much, so fast, and I was overwhelmed with everything that happened yesterday, and the droids, and... I didn't mean to make anyone scared or nervous."

You look at Fluttershy and give her a small, apologetic smile. She looks at you with hope in her eyes in response. She wants to believe you.

You continue. "I don't want things to be weird or tense around here because of what happened. I was just doing everything I could to protect my friends from danger, and I got a little carried away... I'm sorry." You look to Twilight. "Can you forgive me?"

Twilight smiles when you mention that they're your friends and steps towards you. "Of course, Sunset! You saved our lives."

You return her smile and Fluttershy steps out from behind Big Mac as well. "It was a pretty scary situation, and, um, while I can't say I'm happy with how things turned out, I certainly am grateful that you were here, Sunset." She says with a smile.

Big Mac nods beside her. "Eeyup."

You smile as well as you look at all of them. "Thank you all so much... I promise, I'll be better in the future."

Twilight takes another step and gives you a quick hug. You're a bit startled at first, but you return the hug and sigh after a second.

"We're all learning, Sunset." She says. "Mistakes happen sometimes. It's okay."

You smile warmly as you hug your friend. She's right. You're not perfect, and that's okay. The best you can do is try.

After another few seconds, you release each other and she smiles at you. "Now, we still have a bit of work to do before the ship is up and running, but it's coming along quite well. This ship is tough. Those proton torpedoes set us back only a little bit." She says.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?" You ask.

Big Mac grins at you. "Sunset, you've done enough. Why don'tcha sit this one out? Me 'n Twilight can take care of the rest. Spike has made this job a lot easier."

On the holotable, Spike flashes you a toothy grin and nods his head. It makes you chuckle a little.

Twilight smiles again and walks over to him. "At this rate, we should be spaceworthy again in a couple hours. Maybe sooner."

That's good news. You've been stuck here for too long, so it's good that Twilight and Big Mac are so capable. You're about to take their recommendation and head back to your room, but then you remember why you're on this planet in the first place.

"We do still need to get those ysalamiri." You mention.

Twilight points at you once before turning to the holotable. "That's very true, we do... If you insist on helping some more, then you can go out and look for them. It should be relatively easy now that the danger is pretty much gone."

"Okay." You turn to Fluttershy. "Do you want to come with me? I could use your help."

Fluttershy smiles. "I'd love to, Sunset."

You smile at her. "Okay. I'll go get my stuff and we'll head out."

You all go your separate ways. You head to your room to grab your helmet before going into the armory to grab another blaster, just in case. Your lightsaber was still attached to your belt. The droids had been dealt with, but vornskr were native to the planet, and liked to prey on Force-sensitives and ysalamiri alike. Thankfully, dealing with them is much easier than dealing with assassin droids. You should be fine.

Once you're all ready, you put your helmet on and meet Fluttershy at the exit ramp to the ship. "All set?"

She nods and smiles. "Let's go."

The two of you step down the ramp and head into the jungle together.

Author's Note: