Warrior ◊ Star Wars

chapter four; meeting people and hitting them repeatedly

"Don't give up hope, he still might show up." Rey said to comfort BB-8, dropping him from the net for him to finally have solid ground under him after the long ride," Whoever you're waiting for."

Much to Mara's delight, Rey and the droid were getting along quite well. Apparently, they had clicked very nicely while the two scavenged without her. BB-8 had explained his situation, that he was waiting for his owner, or Dameron as Mara knew him, to show up. Of course, Rey had asked why but the answer was always the same whenever the two asked him questions

Classified

"Classified, eh? Expected." Rey murmured, grabbing her staff off the speeder as her blonde friend looked over the outpost, scouting out what everyone had today. One of the Rhodians had half of a broken A-wing hyperdrive, probably worth thirty portions, but no one else had anything worth noting.

"I know all about waiting." Rey continued on, slinging her staff around her shoulders. She glanced at Mara, who just shrugged, a sign that nothing big had come through the outpost yet. She nodded as the astromech chattered.

For what? he beeped. He rolled around, tilting his head up to fully see Rey through his sensors.

"For her sense of humor to develop." Mara joked, earning the fifth eye roll her companion had done that day. The blonde didn't seem fazed by Rey's distaste in her little laugh," It's true."

Rey sighed, ever amazed by her friend's antics. She looked back at the droid, a smile forming, one she had to reassure herself was genuine," For my family. They'll be back, one day. C'mon."

And Mara decided to not harp on her careless joke anymore, instead falling in step with BB-8 and heading towards one if the washing stations, hoping to find one that wasn't full. She felt a twinge of guilt for taking a laugh out of Rey's explanation for why she was even on this sand covered badlands of a planet. Yes, she seemed unaffected by it, but that was just how Rey was. All tough in the outside.

They found two free ones, convenient for both of them to work at. While they scrubbed, the astromech would ask what each piece was and how much it should be worth. He would roll between them, inspecting how each one was doing like he was in charge. Mara found it incredibly cute, like almost everything the round droid did.

It took less than an hour to clean all five of their items, and they were almost to the front of the line by the time most people had washed off half their stock.

"We're making good time today." Mara checked the sun, noting the hour of day as Rey just stared at her. The blonde looked down, but her companion continued to keep eye contact with her.

"What?"

"You know what," the scavenger crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. Mara was completely lost for a second before a knowing look crossed her face.

"I promised, so I won't push it today. You try your methods with Unkar where you stay quiet the whole time and just let him cheat us out and we continue to starve." She gave a huge, pearly smile, only slightly hinting at her distaste in not being able to do her daily ranting.

Rey just nodded, brushing off the sarcastic part of comment as if it never existed, "Good."

Mara again was right.

When they came to the front if the line, Unkar put his monstrously huge hands onto their findings, his price already set even before he examined them. He took a deep breath, glancing at Mara to see if she would start to harp on him. The blonde'a lips didn't even move, but her eyes gave warning looks to the trader.

Unkar faced back to Rey, clearing his throat before speaking," These five pieces are worth....let's see, hmm. One-half portion."

A scowl formed across Mara's face, what she had expected coming true. Another night with an aching and quite hungry stomach. Perhaps she should just steal his whole stock one night. Just the look on Unkar's face if he saw it all gone would be satisfactory enough for her.

She expected Rey to just grab the food as usual and walk away, what she always did. Instead, Mara watched while Rey actually spoke to the trader with objection in her voice, "Last week they were a half portion each."

Rey did this more with more curtsy than the blonde would've, but it was a small stand if none the less. Perhaps her simpler method would earn them a portion, although it was doubtful. Still, one could hope.

Unkar seemed to slightly notice Rey's breach in her normal behavior, his eyes instead on BB-8," What about the droid?"

BB-8 wheeled around, looking up at both Mara and Rey, Me?

Mara scoffed lightly under her breath. Like they'd give him away.

"What about him?" Rey asked him, looking between the two. Unkar turned away, the rustling of plastic and metal heard from behind the fenced off wall.

"I'll pay for him."

Mara's mind was suddenly tempted as mounds upon mounds of portions were set in front of her. Her stomach yearned for them, they were so many. Had she seen that much food in her life before? She'd only dreamt of having that many portions.

The scavengers around her began to talk as Unkar made his offer, Mara and Rey's jaws dropping as he just slammed more onto the counter," Sixty portions."

How long would that feed them? A month. Not needed to scavenge for a full month, always having more food for a whole month. Not needing anymore than what was provided. It seemed beyond Mara's dreams at the moment.

Rey touched the plastic wrappings covering the food, her mouth agape at the amount. Mara reached out and grabbed a few, mouth just watering at the sight. Sure, it all tasted horrible and bitter, but rations were rations. She didn't even seem to mind anymore.

BB-8 beeped, bringing the blonde back to thinking with her heart instead if her hungry stomach. As she set the portions back down on the counter, she remembered her silent promise. Keep BB-8 safe for Dameron until he came back for him. Trading the droid for a month's worth of food would be the complete opposite of that plan.

It seemed to physically hurt her as Mara let go of the portions, repeating her choice in her head. She owed Dameron anyway, and plus the spherical droid was still adorable. But then again, she wouldn't have to starve for awhile.

Shut up Mara, she thought, just let the rations go.

Before Mara could speak again, Rey had, "Actually, the droid's not for sale."

She too removed her hands from the rations, taking only their one-half and turning away from Unkar and his offer. She pulled on Mara's sleeve cuff, muttering to move on as BB-8 blurbed followed the two, very happy he was sticking around the two girls. Mara took one last look at the mound of food before Unkar pushed it back down. Still starving, but at least the droid would stay with them.

"You guys really hit it off while I was sleeping. "The blonde commented as Rey just shrugged. She again glanced at the droid, smiling fondly with a familiar ease as he rolled to a stop.

She spoke maybe without thinking, her words mirroring her thoughts as she said them, "He needs to get back to his master. He doesn't deserve to be just dumped away like no one cares for him."

Mara shared her reminiscent expression, understanding why Rey had kept the droid. She to had probably longed for the rations, but the blonde saw the similarities between both Rey and BB-8's positions. Both were just waiting.

Her on the other hand, well.......one way to put it was that she was just hiding.

As they began to move back to the speeder, they were stopped by two of the local travelers. Both were the regular buyers, Mara recognized. Instead of the usual scavenging, these two would come every day by ship. They most likely lived in one of the farther outposts to the west and came to Niima to buy parts.

Mara had really never talked to them before, but they never really seemed to stir up trouble. One had started talking to Rey, hopefully to initialized some deal that would get them more good than they had. Mara began to listen in, crossing her fingers that they wanted something other than the droid to trade.

She was wrong, and the other had taken the chance to put a threaded sack over BB-8. That's when Mara's nice switch turned off.

"Hell no!" She exclaimed, going in for a punch as the attacker pushed her back.

One went for Rey while Mara pulled her batons off her leather belt. Her first swing went right into one's head, the other into it's ribs. She bashed metal sticks again and again against the soon-to-be thief's body, him shying away for the impact. Mara sent a kick straight to its kneecaps, assuming it had kneecaps, but it caught her leg. She tripped, falling back into the hot, coarse sand she despised so much.

The blonde recovered quickly, flailing around her feet so much her attacker let go. Jumping back up, she rammed into the thing's body to cause him to lose his ground. Pushing herself off and resuming a fighting stance, Mara tossed both of her batons in the air. She sent a left uppercut square to the attacker's jaw, then another punch right to the gut. Her faithful batons fell back into her hands. She then swung hard with her right into the person's head, the blow the final in the fight. The attacker hit the ground with a thud, managing to start a feeble crawl away from Mara as she turned to help Rey.

It was unneeded. Rey had her foe down as well, her staff delivering a quick end to the match. As the women caught their breath, BB-8 chirped from under the sack.

I can't see!

"Here buddy, we'll get ya out." Mara was still breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping itself through her. She took a deep breath while she bent down to lift the cloth off the astromech. The droid shook his head, glad to be free again. As he scanned the area for more possible threats, a certain person caught his eye.

"Are you okay?" Rey asked BB-8, who was now screaming in his own droid way, fumbling around. Mara looked up in the direction he was pointing at, eyes raking the area for more attackers.

Instead, she saw one man, dark-skinned and well-built. Fighter, that was for sure. Dehydrated and bewildered, most likely lost. Fairly new boots, worn-down black clothing. But that wasn't what set fire to Mara's blood. Her adrenaline and hype from the fight was still fresh, and as soon as set her eyes on the jacket she was running.

The man had set off to, surprised at the three stranger's sudden movements. He was booking it, maneuvering around the outpost with haste. He ran into quite a few of different traders findings, earning foul language and profanity thrown his way. Just when he thought he was free, a staff made contact with his face. He fell right back, straight into Mara, who hooked one of her batons underneath his jaw.

Her knee went to his spine. He cried in pain as Mara dropped him into Jakku's sand. She stood ahead next to Rey, looking at Dameron's jacket that the stranger wore.

"What's your hurry, thief?" Rey hit his leg with her staff again as he tried to stand. He was thrown back to the ground, mind reeling as he tried to figure out what was happening.

The man groaned in pain, coughing in the sand cloud that had formed around him when he fell. He was still weary from the chase, "What? Thief?"

BB-8 rolled up behind the women, throwing a few unfriendly words at him as he proceeded to shock him. Mara smirked as the man let out another outburst of pain," What?!? What is this! Do you always hit people when you meet them?"

"You'd be surprised how often we do. Now the jacket stupid." The blonde spit blatantly as she kicked him again, mostly out of spite.

Rey finished for her, eyes interlocked with the strangers as she bared her staff, "This droid says you stole it!"

The man, looking pretty ticked due to his beating, shot back, "Look, I've had a pretty messed up day alright! I would appreciate if you would stop accusing me of-"

He let out another cry as BB-8 electrocuted him again. This time Mara pulled out her blaster from her sand-caked holster, which had been depleted for years. Never less, it was a good intimidating technique. The man took notice of her actions, crawling away from her a few inches. Just for the fun of it, she took a step forward fast, causing him to flinch pretty bad.

"Tell us where you got the jacket nerf-herder and I won't shoot." Mara warned, fingers going down to the trigger to emphasize her point. By the look on his face, the tactic was working.

"It belongs to his master!" Rey told him, and he snapped his neck back to answer her earlier question. He took in a deep breath, sharp and stiff. He hung his head, intaking another bit of air to force the sentence out.

"It belonged to Poe Dameron." His brown eyes bounced between the three in front of him, stopping on the droid," That was his name, right?"

Mara's worry increase considerably, noticing that 'belongs' and been turned into 'belonged'. Past tense. A lump rose in her throat as her grip on the blaster loosened a little.

A brief moment of silence in the group allowed the man to continue recollecting his story," He was captured by The First Order. I helped him escape, but our ship crashed."

Now her gut was started to feel torn. No, it wasn't true. Nope, not him. He was way too good of a pilot to crash anything.

But of course, everything had to fall apart. The stranger stammered a bit as he continued to look back at the droid, choosing his next words carefully," Poe didn't make it."

He was dead.

Mara had now fully lowered her useless blaster, jamming it back into it's holster. As BB-8's head lowered in sorrow for his late master, she felt sick. She didn't feel right at all.

She clenched her teeth. There was still to much hype in her from both fending off the droid's kidnappers and chasing after this man to immediately feel sadness. No, Mara had never been the one for tears or sobbing, she had always been taught not to. Her way of expression when in agony had always been anger first.

But yet she found her right hand shaking as she rested it on her holster. Swallowing quickly, she felt like she couldn't quite breath properly. Mara tapped her hand against her belt, trying to get out whatever was causing her to keep shaking. She pulled her head back, glancing back at Rey and the droid.

"I tried to help him," The stranger went on, trying to console the mourning astromech, "I'm sorry."

Mara felt like laughing, or maybe it was just the immediate stress of it all. How did this man survive and not Dameron? How exactly? The thought seemed ridiculous, even impossible.

Back-spinning on her heel, she took out her blaster once again. Aiming straight for the man's head, she watched as his expression morphed back into the fear he had felt minutes ago.

Mara pretty much sneered, setting her jaw as her fingers gripped tighter onto holster," Or you could've, ya know, killed him. You were staring at the droid before, perhaps he knows something? Once you found out what it was, well why not kill it's master then find the droid? Maybe this Dameron told you and you saw a chance to get rich-"

"No no I swear!" The man said quickly, shaking his head incredibly fast," He helped save my life, why would I kill him?"

Rey, who was surprised at Mara's rash action, put out her hand on the blaster's barrel, angling it down. She looked the blonde in the eyes, slowly articulating her words, "I think he's telling the truth."

Mara instead continued to glare at the stranger, focusing on her breathing. Breaking her gaze away from him briefly, she looked at Rey. Her friend, knowing how the blonde could be with sparks of anger, mouthing the number '1'.

Taking in one, long deep breath, Mara shoved the blaster back into it's place. Turning her back on Rey and the stranger, she let the breath go.

1

He's dead

2

She was randomly waving a blaster around at a stranger

3

She needed to get it freaking together

After counting in her head, she took several steps forward, putting both her hands on her head.

Get it together, or you'll screw up, she thought to herself, and you can't screw up. So move on now.

"So you're with the Resistance?" Mara heard Rey ask the man behind her. There was a still moment before the sand beneath him rustled and he stood up.

"Obviously. Yes, I am with the Resistance, yeah." He was rambling, seeming more like he was trying to convince himself of the fact as much as he was trying to Rey.

"I am with the Resistance." He whispered. Mara rolled her eyes, moving towards BB-8 a few feet away.

"I've never met a Resistance member before." Rey told him. The blonde was now shaking her head.

"Well this is what we look like; some of us. Others look different." The stranger stammered.

Mara couldn't decide to gag or want them to continue flirting. She decided on doing both simultaneously, much to BB-8's delight. He chattered a bit at her antics. The droid and the woman were making fun of the two from afar as they continued to talk.

"BB-8 says he is on a secret mission. He has to get back to your base." Rey's voice was excited now, probably being fascinated by the idea of a secret mission.

The stranger then decided to explain, both to probably everyone's surprise," Apparently he has a map to Luke Skywalker and everyone's after it."

This is when Mara's head turned so fast she'd thought she'd given herself whiplash. She ran right up behind Rey, mind boggled as the two exclaimed in sync," Luke Skywalker!"

Mara surveyed the area, realizing they'd said the legend's name a tad to loud. None had. Rey quieted her voice, mouth agape in disbelief," I thought he was a myth."

Before the man could answer, BB-8 alerted them, chirping. The three pulled away from the circle they had made, rushing to see what the astromech had spotted. He continued to roll, trying to point at the threats beyond.

Mara, who truly thought a friend dying could ruin her day, was horribly surprised when she realized the shiny white suits. Contrasting against the sand, they seemed so foreign to Jakku. So alien. Stormtroopers in such a neutral place was a weird sight indeed.

One thought replayed in Mara's head while she immediately exploded back to start running away.

They found me.