TWENTY FOUR.
by the light of the moon!
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Midnight black skies blanket the sea of tall dunes, muting the gold that once sparkled off the grains. Twilight has long since disappeared into the horizon, and stars twinkle overhead, watchful and constant. Toro stares towards the ridges where the assassin lies in wait, and when he's sure it's time, he starts to call for his two companions, eyes bleary from lack of sleep.

            "All right, suns are down," he says. "Time to ride."

            The lack of an answer leads him to turn, eyes cutting through the darkness to see the Mandalorian leaning against the speeder, Zoya curled up tightly against his side, body coiled like a slumbering cat's. They both appear to be asleep, so Toro pushes himself to his feet, stepping down the curve of the dune towards them.

            "Come on, wake up." He dusts off his hands, coming to a stop before them. When they still don't move, a smirk tugs at one side of his lips. "Look at you, asleep on the job, old man. Cuddling up with a fuckin' girl instead of hunting down an assassin." Toro squints at them when they still don't move, feigning a turn back to the crest of the dune, then pivoting back with his blaster pointed at them. He twirls the handle between his fingers, directing the muzzle first at the Mandalorian's head, then at Zoya's.

            Beneath Zoya's hand, the Mandalorian's chest rises and falls with an exasperated breath. "You done?" he says, turning his eyes on the younger man as Zoya unfurls herself and stretches, feline-like.

            "Yeah. I was just, you know, waking you guys up."

            Zoya feels Din's fingers trail down her spine as she eases her head to the side, stretching her neck and eyeing Toro as he slides his blaster back into its holster. "Yeah, that's definitely what it looked like," she quips.

            Toro clears his throat uncomfortably, waving his hands in the air. "Um. Just come on."

            Din stands, reaching down for Zoya. She threads her fingers through his and allows him to help pull her to her feet, feeling cramped from lying on the sand for so long. He brushes a little off her shoulder, his hand lingering, something that she doesn't overlook.

            "Get on your bike," he says to Toro. "Ride as fast as you can towards those rocks." He steps towards the back of his speeder, drawing something from the folds of his pack. Zoya steps around him, getting ready to slide onto the seat.

            "That's your plan?" Toro asks, sounding incredulous, gripping the handlebars. "She'll snipe us right off the bikes."

            Hopefully just one of us. Zoya refrains from repeating the thought aloud, but it pulls a subtle grin onto her lips.

            Din tosses something to him, noting the expression on Zoya's face and wondering what made her smile. "It's a flash charge. We alternate shots; it'll blind any scope temporarily. Combine that with our speed, and we got a chance."

            His eyebrows shoot up. "A chance?"

            "Hey—you wanted this. Get ready."

            Zoya climbs onto the speeder before him, and he steadies her as she adjusts herself, hand pressed to her waist. "You good?" Din says.

            She nods. "Yeah."

            Din slides himself onto the speeder's seat in front of her, and Zoya slips her arms forward to encircle his torso almost immediately. Revving the engine of the bike, he nods at Toro and shoots forward over the dune, whirring across the sand. It remains quiet for a beat, until Din shoots the first flash up above their heads. When it goes off, the flare of light is so bright that it's like looking into a sun.

            The effect doesn't last as long as she'd hoped; a few seconds later, it's dark again, and a sniper shot strikes the sand between the two speeders, sending them splitting around opposite sides of a dune.

            "Now!" Din yells.

            Toro fires his flare into the blackened sky, and a firework of light explodes into the air. Fennec Shand's bolt rockets past dangerously close, nearly singing Din's armor. As the speeder swerves away from the shot, Zoya lets out a foul curse, clinging tighter to the Mandalorian's torso as she nearly slips to the side.

            They crest a dune a split second later, flying through the air for a brief moment before hurtling back towards the ground without losing speed. Zoya knits her fingers in front of Din's abdomen, pressing herself into his back and squeezing her eyes shut.

            Toro attempts to shoot another flash up, but he seems to lose his grip just before he fires, and it careens towards the ground instead, veering in front of Din and Zoya's speeder before tumbling through the sand. Without the bright distraction of the flare in the onyx sky, Zoya realizes abruptly that Fennec Shand has a clear shot on them just before the sniper's bolt slams square into the front of their speeder.

            Din and Zoya are thrown off the bike, tumbling through the air before unceremoniously slamming into the dirt. A groan escapes Din's lips at the impact, but Zoya doesn't make a sound, trying to reclaim the breath that's been knocked out of her.

            Toro barrels on without them, and pushing himself up onto his elbows, Din fires another flare, giving him enough cover to reach the rocks. He climbs to his feet clumsily, stepping forward to where Zoya lays flat on her back, still trying to catch her breath. Just as he approaches her, Fennec's next bolt strikes him square in the sheet of Beskar that protects his chest, sending him careening backwards into the sand once again.

            "Din!" Zoya shrieks, blackened threads of fear infiltrating her voice.

            "Zoya!" Din shouts, panicked as he falls, the words sounding choked from the power of the shot slamming into his chest. "Stay fucking down!"

            Heart in his throat, pulse rapidly tapping at the insides of his wrists, Din crawls towards her, waiting for the next shot, begging that it'll be fired at him and not her. He reaches forward blindly, gloved fingers finding her forearm. Breaths shaky and shallow, Din moves instantly on top of her, shielding her body with his own. Her fingers clutch at his sides, and her eyes search his visor, closer than they've ever been. Stars catch in her irises and worry pulls at her mouth as one of her hands slides around the smoking hole in the Beskar covering his chest to touch his helmet.

            "Are you okay?"

            "Beskar. Fine," he says shortly, memorizing the image of her face as he waits in dread for the shot to come.

            But it doesn't.

            Though Fennec doesn't fire upon them again, Toro's blaster goes off above them, and Din rolls off Zoya, on his feet in a millisecond. "Come on!"

            She scrambles to follow him, moving much less gracefully, tripping towards the rocks as he ascends them. Something about the way the weight of him pressed down atop her clings to her senses like a relentless fly, buzzing through her mind just as she feels it's gone for good. Din reaches the top faster than she does, and when Zoya catches up, he's standing over Fennec Shand, who holds Toro in a chokehold—with her legs.

            "Nice distraction," Din says, and the assassin releases Toro reluctantly, knowing she's outnumbered.

            Groaning, Toro crawls away, trying to get to his feet as Fennec sits up, hands in the air, black braid trailing down her back. The assassin's mouth is drawn into a thin line, and she looks annoyed, as if they've interrupted her during a nice, quiet meal.

            Toro huffs again, grunting every couple seconds. "Ow," he mutters. "Yeah . . . good work, partner."

            Din ignores him. "Cuff yourself," he says to Fennec brusquely, tossing a familiar pair of restraints the woman's way. Zoya's eyes catch on the metal cuffs, remembering the times he'd locked her to the wall, not trusting her to walk free around the Razor Crest. His helmet tips towards her, as if he's thinking about the same thing.

            As Fennec takes the cuffs into her hands, Toro releases another groan. Zoya lifts an eyebrow, irked. "Did she fucking collapse your lung?"

            "No," he says in reply, holding his side.

            "Stop making noise, then. Please."

            "Why don't you go find your blaster?" Din cuts in, sounding just a little patronizing. Toro walks off obediently, brows furrowed in annoyance.

            The assassin's eyes trail across Din's silhouette, and arrogance paints her features. "A Mandalorian. It's been a long time since I've seen one of your kind." She stands as she speaks, not once glancing Zoya's way. "Ever been to Nevarro? I heard things didn't go so well there, but it looks like you got off easy."

            Despite the cuffs locking Fennec's wrists together, Zoya tenses, hand dropping to her blaster and squeezing tightly, reassuring herself that it's still there.

            "You don't have to worry about getting to Nevarro," Toro says, holstering his own blaster, which he'd apparently found in the dirt, "or anywhere else, once we turn you in. You know, I really should thank you. You're my ticket into the Guild."

            "You're welcome," Fennec mutters as Din marches her past.

            Zoya steps after them, releasing an exasperated sigh. "Please, tell the assassin more about how inexperienced you are."

            "I'm not inexperienced," Toro objects, trailing behind her.

            "You're not even in the Guild yet."

            His answering silence is more than enough to communicate to Zoya that she's gotten the best of him. Again.

            Another problem arises once they've descended from the ridge: there's only one speeder. Fennec's satisfaction is palpable as they approach, and the corner of her mouth tugs up into a smug smirk.

            "Uh-oh," she says. "Looks like two of us have to walk."

            Din shoves her onto the ground. "Or we could drag you."

            Stepping a few feet away, Din, Zoya, and Toro form a loose circle. "All right," Toro says, "so what is the plan?"

            "I need you to go find that Dewback we saw," Din tells him.

            His eyebrows shoot upwards. "And leave you here with my bounty and my ride? Yeah, I don't think so, Mando."

            Din turns quietly and scans the dunes, the lens on his visor whirring. A sigh filters through his lips. "Okay. I'll do it. Watch her, and don't let her get near the bike. She's no good to us dead." He catches Zoya's arm and tugs her past the speeder. "Keep an eye on them," he tells her softly. "I'll be back before you know it."

            Her eyes trail slowly across the expanse of his helmet, so thoroughly that Din feels almost exposed beneath her gaze. "Okay," she says finally, voice a whisper beneath the light of the moon. "See you in a minute."

            The edge of his mouth tugs up. "See you in a minute."

            He turns without further delay, starting to walk off into the desert by himself. Zoya feels a pull in her chest but manages to ignore it, turning back towards Toro, who has settled upon the seat of the speeder, and Fennec, who sits against the rocks. The expression on her face whispers  that she knows a joke no one else does, and the amusement on her features only heightens when her eyes clash with Zoya's.

            Fennec raises an eyebrow at their prolonged eye contact, but otherwise remains silent as Zoya approaches the two, twirling a knife between her fingers that Toro eyes nervously.

            "What are you doing with that?" he asks.

            Her dark stare flicks to him. "Not sure yet," Zoya says, smiling. "We'll see."

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When the suns begin to swell above the horizon, sending a ripple of soft blue, pink, and orange hues across the deep azure shades of midnight, Fennec Shand yawns dramatically and pretends to stretch, lifting her cuffed hands high above her head. "It's been a while," she says. "Oh, look, the suns are coming up."

            "Quiet," Toro says in a monotone, staring at Zoya as she paces.

            "The pining has begun," Fennec comments flatly, following Toro's gaze. Zoya tosses a scowl her way but doesn't say a word. "Look, there's still time to make my rendezvous in Mos Espa. Take me to it, and I can pay you double the price on my head."

            "I don't care about the money," Toro says.

            Beneath her breath, Zoya mutters, "Biggest surprise of the century." It goes unnoticed by both Fennec and Toro.

            "Oh, so the Mandalorian keeps all the money for himself and his little girlfriend over here," Fennec says, feigning both interest and confusion whilst pretending not to notice the daggers Zoya's eyes throw.

            Toro rolls his eyes. "Only because I let him."

            Scoffing, Fennec leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "Doesn't seem that way. I mean, it seems like he's calling all the shots."

            "Shows what you know," Toro retorts. "I hired Mando; this is my job. Bringing you in will make me a full member of the Bounty Hunters Guild."

            "You already have something the Guild values far more than me, you just don't see it," Fennec says.

            Zoya stops pacing.

            "What?" Toro says flatly.

            "The Mandalorian," Fennec emphasizes.

            Zoya's breath catches in her throat, and she turns slowly, her blaster already half out of its holster.

            "His armor alone is worth more than my bounty," Fennec continues.

            "Hey," Zoya calls, stressing each word, "why don't you shut the fuck up?"

            "We're trying to have a conversation here, sweetheart," she says, without deigning to look Zoya's way.

            Toro folds his arms and looks away from the assassin, unimpressed. "I already told you, I don't care about the money."

            "Then think what it would do for your reputation. A Mandalorian shot up the Guild on Nevarro, took some high value target, and went rogue with an ex-convict at his side."

            "That Mandalorian?" Toro asks disbelievingly, glancing the way Din disappeared.

            Fennec nods. "Like I said, you don't see many. You bring the Guild that traitor, and they'll welcome you with open arms. Your name will be legendary."

            "Enough," Zoya snaps, striding towards the assassin until she's standing right above her. "That's enough."

            Despite her intentions to prevent Toro from listening to the corruptive words of Fennec Shand, Zoya's mistake is deciding to put her back to him. Within a split second, Toro's choice is made, and he slams the hilt of his blaster into the back of Zoya's head while she's facing the assassin, and everything turns black.

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toro's a snake i said what i said