CHAPTER 30

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STRANGE FORCES!

*:･ﾟ✧

Gazing up in the direction of the pale ladder, Gaia's nerves are all over the place. The lower chamber of the Razor Crest is eerily quiet for once, and although she doesn't have any specific issues with droids in general, Zero is far from welcome aboard here in her eyes.

Gaia averts her leer and conducts her dense awareness onto The Child instead, who is stationed comfortably in her lap. The floor of the Razor Crest is severely cold yet she stays put, refusing to remove him or even herself.

"Don't worry. He'll be back," Gaia soothes when The Child stares longingly toward the hatch, which is not far from them. "Here~"

Gaia presents The Child with the red-tinted scope once more that she'd pried from the cabinet of weapons. Since Zero is occupying the cockpit and acting as a personal guide to the rest of the group, the metal sphere is currently unavailable and in order to keep the kid's attention near her, she had decided to plunder the ship for any sort of temporary entertainment. There wasn't much which could've drawn The Child's attention and the scope is only doing half its job, so being overly excited is a must on Gaia's part in order to get him to play along. Her voice is lighter and eyes softened, digits grasping the scope as a wide smile breaks out on her lips.

Not only is she trying to keep The Child busy, but also that of herself and her erratic mind.

"I'll stay behind. You go," she asserted to Mando, eyeing Xi'an and Mayfeld with a cautious look. "I don't trust them, and someone has to keep an eye on the droid."

Mando nodded in agreement, fearful of the fact that Gaia was going to be alone with Zero. He was hesitant yet also assured while realising she was deviating from the group in order to watch over The Child. "I'll be back. Take care of yourself and the kid."

"He's a big softie, isn't he?" Gaia looks down at The Child, observing him clutch the scope. "He's pretending he's not, but he surely is."

The Child babbles in response as if telling her 'yes'. Gaia chuckles to herself and assists him when he tries to climb over her knee, placing him down on the floor and gently taking the red-tinted scope from his hands. He then departs from her, waddling around the room while tilting his head every now and then.

Gaia, seeing this as her scant opportunity while still holding the scope, rises slowly to her feet. Huffing, she meticulously zips her jumpsuit halfway down and examines the bandages hugging her torso like coats of fresh white snow. She settles a finger on top of the fabric afterward and presses meekly down, gruffly flinching when a dulled pain races below her skin and along her veins. "Damn." She drops her hand. The incident on Tatooine may be long gone although Toro is not; he's right here with her, sitting in the very back of her mind through day and night, hassling her.

Gaia rids herself of a jaded sigh. Though, focusing down on the scope in her hands, a tender beam replaces her fatigued mood.

Never in her life did Gaia think she would come to care for another being again as passionately as she does for The Child. In the beginning, he was nothing more than an asset — a bounty with a huge reward stamped on it which was to be retrieved and delivered in order for her to carry out her plans. She was wrong, she knew that, and she came to acknowledge it. However, instead of intervening as she should have, she did nothing. She was disappointed with herself for not seeking help and rescuing him sooner, but no matter what she thought, Mando shared her intentions and agreed with her.

At first, she truly didn't know what to make of it — a battle-hardened Mandalorian defying direct orders from the Guild and going rogue, and against the Empire too no less, although now it's clear just how good of a heart Mando has. She should've realized it sooner and insisted harder to go with him into the client's safe house though, but thankfully it ended on a positive note. The Child was rescued, and she swore to never let him down ever again.

Gaia adjusts the jumpsuit to cover the whole of her clean bandages. She trudges over to the cabinet afterwards and types the correct code in, the doors opening with a groan. She places the scope to its former position, tentatively, stopping briefly as her mind wanders off.

It's the way Mando was so incredibly humble when he had handled her injury which takes hold — his enthusiasm of showering her with joy as he had prompted her to teach him of her people's language, it sways and curves through her head like blades of driven grass.

A certain warmth gathers in Gaia's peeling chest, stretching through her ribcage and sprouting small seeds of affection. They blossom, slowly but surely, into wildborne flowers and weathering vines which slinks up into her arms, down her legs, and around her heart, collectively squeezing the frail organ. Gaia leans her head against the surface of the cabinet once its doors have been closed, and without realizing she's spacing out and replaying the scene in which he had cared for her a few days ago, a tottering excitement bounces in the deepest depths of her blue skin as she awaits Mando's promised return.

"Oh. Zero — sorry I didn't see you there. . ." Gaia clears her throat, awkwardly trying to rearrange her posture as she pushes off the cabinet. "Can I help you with something?"

Observing the droid, a frown is caught in Gaia's brow upon seeing him look curiously around the room. He doesn't answer her offer of assistance, neither does he turn to look at her. He simply continues to inspect the ship and take a closer look in its dark corners.

"Did. . .Did Mando and the others run into some kind of trouble?" Gaia says, haltingly. Her gaze is fixated on Zero's blaster. Her robust attention is soon yanked towards Dawnbringer which is placed against the opposite wall, her arms crossed over the expanse of her chest as she gulps while searching for The Child with fearful eyes. "Zero, what are you looking for?" The droid doesn't bother to face her. "Maybe I can help. I'm pretty good at finding stuff, you know?"

Both Gaia and Zero swivel their focus unto the compartment ahead of them. A swish of compressed air had just sounded, indicating that the door was recently tampered with.

Zero hones in on the noise, and Gaia feels nauseous as she leads herself over to her trusted sword. She bends down and swiftly retrieves it, freeing it from its matted sheath.

. . .How odd.

Gaia's face can be seen on the flat side of Dawnbringer. Her brows are pinched together in bewilderment as her Spectre aggressively stirs while she's staring at her own reflection, yet that's not all. It's inflicted with something else besides its own, like a hammering force pressing at it from the side or something. She reels a shaking breath in.

The door to the compartment is now wide open, and Zero has raised his blaster, preparing his aim at someone Gaia cannot see when she diverts her entranced gaze. With her Spectre, she's led over to the droid who remains outlandishly unfazed, as if answering a distant call. Standing wordlessly behind him, right as he's about to pull the trigger and do unimaginable harm, she tightens her grip on her weapon and braces her firm stance. In a single fluid motion, she elevates her sword and cuts diagonally across at Zero's prone form. The moment is over in a second as the droid ceases to function and his torso and blaster clatters to the ground in finality, unattached legs slumping in an untidy heap.

Gaia blinks, as if trying to shake herself from a bad dream. She glares inquisitively down at a damaged Zero and then up at The Child whose hand is lowered, eyes fluttering open.

"What did you do?" she accuses, blindly.

The Child merely coos up at her and lifts his arms in a gesture of comfort. Bewitched, Gaia moves down and holds him close to her chest with a secured hand — tinted sword in the other. "I hope Mando is okay. I knew these people were up to no good so them stabbing him in the back wouldn't be surprising. . ."

Despite the dark undertone of her voice, Gaia is notably collected. With The Child so close to her, she doesn't feel a shred of imbalance within her. ". . .Don't tell Mando about this."

Gaia nods to herself, locking her bottom lip between her teeth as she tiptoes around Zero's body and discards Dawnbringer for now. She ventures upward, like a bird would to a wind-current, and enters the cockpit with The Child still in her grasp. She claims a content seat in the pilot chair and provides the screen in front of her a pursed look. There's nothing but static on it. Gaia hums, glancing around and attempting to fix the screen by pressing some buttons she has a feeling might undo the damage. Although, even after a while of investigating, nothing significant or interesting happens. Until. . .

"M-M-Mando, I-I've received. . ."

A faint holographic display of Greef Karga appears before Gaia suddenly. The distorted message, however, is old. She can easily recognize it from when they vacated Arvala-7 and were headed for Nevarro to deliver The Child. "Well, that explains why Zero came after you," Gaia states down at the kid in her lap. "Should I. . . Yeah, I'm going to erase it."

And gone it is.

"Gaia!"

Jumping in her seat, Gaia breathes a relieved sigh once recognizing Mando's voice. Her heart beats savagely against the walls of her crowded chest, reminding her of the fuzzy feeling she would succumb to whenever Mando looks at her. "I'm up here!" she shouts past her shoulder, standing from the chair.

Gaia holds The Child to her as he prattles happily upon hearing Mando. Gaia finds herself descending the ladder into the lower chamber of the Razor Crest a second later, glimpsing Zero's crashed body on the way down and stopping at the bottom when perceiving the Twi'lek stood by Mando.

"The prisoner?" she asks in a casual voice.

"Yes."

"What happend to the others?"

Mando looks thoroughly at Gaia for a long moment, ecstatic to see her alive and well as he motions towards Zero's body. "The same thing which came for the droid," he reveals.

The answer was inevitable from the moment Xi'an, Mayfeld, and Burg decided to doublecross them. Gaia cannot say what exactly it was that occured down there on that New Republic prison ship, but whatever it was, they must've had it coming. If there's one thing Gaia has learned about Mando, it's that he never acts out of anger or revenge but closure and fairness — serving punches where a little bit of damage is meant to go. Gaia is not privy to the ordeal he just came out of, nor does it interest her yet she's well aware that his morals must've been in the right place, that Ran's little crew got what was due.

Pointing at The Child and fleetingly eyeing Gaia, Qin curtly asks, "Is that your kid?"

Gaia's expression never so much as falters, nor does it even change its consistent nature to showcase any reserved emotion for the prisoner whose presence has tangled them up in so much trouble today. "Yes. And if you touch him, I'll cut off your hand. You got it?"

— Author's Note —

My god,,,Gaia and The Child will be the death of me. The fact that Gaia envisioned and wanted to have a family of her own when she grew up and then thought she was never meant to find it or was somehow undeserving of one because of what the Empire did to her but now she kinda actually has one and it's Mando and The Child, is just———