CHAPTER TWO. 

THE FURY 

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Tess stared up at the Mandalorian, tears drying on her cheeks, a frown growing on her tempered face.

"Who are you?" she asked, words like stones dropping into a river of sand, breaking the current. Tess was always the one to change the stream. The Mandalorian didn't flinch, from what she could tell. It was hard to see if her words had had any affect on the man when she wasn't able to see his face. Little did she know that the Mandalorian was looking at her in mild interest. He'd never met someone so young who could make even him want to leave the room.

Tess looked down at the child still clinging to her metal leg. "What is this thing?" she asked, moving her leg around, trying to shake the creature off. He didn't budge.

Finally, the Mandalorian spoke, only it wasn't to Tess. "Get away from her." he was speaking to the child. The baby cooed and looked up at the Mandalorian through those wide orbs. The child did not let go.

"Who are you?" Tess asked again. The Mandalorian did not respond, only pointed a warning finger at the child.

"Hey," he called. "Get away from her!"

"Marshal, who is this?" Tess turned to the man who'd saved her. She could tell he wanted an apology for the way she'd screamed and kicked at him only seconds before, but apologies were not in Tess' nature, and she was more curious about the new arrival then anything else.

"Kid," Mando said to the child. "Come here."

"Why does he wear Mandalorian armor?" Tess asked the Marshal.

"Hey, kid, get away from her!" The Mandalorian told the child. Tess looked to him in frustration.

"Why do you wear Mandalorian armor?" she asked.

Mando finally looked up, his hoarse voice exasperated and slightly out of breath. "What?"

Tess cursed. "Why. Do. You. Wear. Mandalorian. Armor?" She spoke the words clear and precise. Each syllable felt like a punch to the gut.

"Because I am a Mandalorian." he replied.

"So you do know who you are." Tess said bluntly. Mando took a step towards her.

The Marshal intervened and looked back at Tess. "Tess, come on." Tess rolled her eyes, but with the excitement dissipating at a quickened pace, memories of the dragon and her shop resurfaced. Tess' stomach twisted, and she went back to staring at her glass.

"What was that thing?" the Mandalorian's voice had a rasp to it, like coarse sandpaper over smooth wood. To be honest, it sounded a bit like Tess did when she was angry and began to scream at anyone who passed her way.

"A monster." Tess replied. Mando cocked his head to the side. From the way he stood, Tess knew the Mandalorian thought she was joking. Tess wasn't one for amusement. She stared at him until the message came across, and the Mandalorian got the idea. If this girl said something was a monster, then that was exactly what it was.

The Marshal looked back at Tess, a thousand emotions waging war across his sculpted features. "Maybe we can talk outside." he told the Mandalorian. Tess frowned and got up from where she sat as the Mandalorian nodded and followed the Marshal out into the streets. Tess was frozen, her limbs aching and her heart beating a million beats per minute. It thrummed inside her heart, awakening a sensation like she was falling.

It was gone, she realized, her shop, her everything, all gone. The dragon, a terrifying beast she'd so carelessly disregarded, had done this, smashed it to pieces in the blink of an eye. The building she'd been standing in only minutes before had been taken from her. Rage boiled inside of Tess, a storming inferno that burned her insides. Fury unlike anything before wrestled inside her. The Marshal and the Mandalorian had disappeared from view, rounding the corner to the bar. It was gone, all gone.

Tess curled her hands into fists. She walked around the table, but as the scenes of her shop's destruction ran across her thoughts, Tess grunted and fell back against the table, bracing herself upon the wood.

It would pay.

The dragon would pay for what it had done, and in that moment, Tess knew what the Marshal had meant by saying they could work something out. He wanted to kill the dragon. Tess decided she was going to help.

And when Tess Oprin made her mind up about something, there was nothing anybody could do to stop her.

Tess walked over to the door frame and peered out, her leg aching. The townsfolk had come out of their homes, noticing that both the dragon and fuming girl were gone. Tess saw the Mandalorian, stoic and broad-shouldered, walking alongside Vanth, who had his hands resting on his hips. One's armor was polished and as silver as Tess' eyes on a cloudy day, while the Marshal's armor was patchy and rusting, only intact because of Tess' fixes.

Tess ignored the townspeople's looks as she ran after the Marshal and Mandalorian. She came up beside Vanth, and he jumped when she touched his elbow. The Mandalorian froze, eyeing Tess suspiciously. Tess glared back, and eventually, the former conceded the battle. Those eyes were storms he had no intention of passing through.

"Why are you here?" Tess asked the Mandalorian. They passed a young girl and an older man putting new planks over a destroyed balcony. Tess didn't know her name, nor did she care to find out. Instead, she looked at the wood, destroyed and ravaged from the dragon. I will kill it, she thought, no matter what. Tess looked back to the edge of the town, where the carnage of her shop lay in wreckage. A lump welled in her throat. She turned back to the Mandalorian and the Marshal. Vanth was looking at her strangely, but quickly spun ahead when she met his gaze.

The Mandalorian did not answer her question, instead responded with his own. "Who was that creature?" Tess scrunched her eyebrows. They passed another young girl with a pair of goggles over her eyes, welding two pipes back onto her speeder bike. Tess clenched her jaw, refraining from going up to the girl and screaming at her for doing it wrong. Tess was the mechanic in these parts, and all broken machinery automatically went to her. Until today, she supposed.

It was all gone.

"That creature's been terrorizing these parts since long before Mos Pelgo was established." The Marshal said, snapping Tess out of her spiral of thoughts. Tess moved in between the two men, crossing her arms over her chest. Her limp was getting more pronounced with every step, and her subtle winces did not go unnoticed by the Mandalorian.

"Thanks to this armor," the Marshal continued. Tess glanced up at him, an eyebrow raised. "-and Tess' mechanic skills," she inclined her head, satisfied. "I've been able to protect this town from bandits and sand people."

"He's the savior." Tess said, a hint of sarcasm lining her words. The Mandalorian inclined his head towards the girl. No longer was she a pit of anger and despair as he'd seen her after the beast's attack, thrashing and screaming in the Marshal's arms. This girl had pulled a mask over her face, and she'd gone back to the stoic, emotionless mechanic she must have been before.

The Mandalorian knew all about wearing masks.

The Marshal held up a hand. "They look to me to protect 'em." he clarified. "But the Krayt dragon is too much for me to take on alone." The Marshal moved to lean against a smashed pillar, and his features displayed the pain of not being able to protect the town. Tess stood beside him, but she was not looking at the Marshal, she was peering at the Mandalorian through electric eyes.

"Help me kill it," Vanth said to the Mandalorian. "I'll give you the armor." Tess snapped her head towards the Marshal, confusion rippling through her.

"What?" she asked. "What do you mean give him the armor?"

The Marshal. "I'm not a Mandalorian, Tess. This one here is, and he wants it back. It's part of his creed."

"I don't care about his creed." Tess replied, and the Mandalorian turned to her in protest. "You got that armor, you paid for it, and I didn't spend all those late hours patching it up for you so you can just throw it away to some random stranger."

"The armor doesn't belong to either of you." Mando argued. "It belongs with a true Mandalorian."

"Aren't you guys found?" Tess asked. "Taken from your homes to be raised by others? Because if so, then anyone can become a Mandalorian."

"That's not how it works." Mando argued. Tess didn't seem to be listening, she turned back to the Marshal.

"There are other's ways to kill it." she told the man. "We don't need him."

"Since when did you become interested in helpin out the town?" the Marshal jested. Tess was not amused.

"I didn't." she replied. "It destroyed my shop, Vanth, that's the only reason I'm even talking to you about it."

"I appreciate that you want to help, Tess." he said. "I truly do, but a little girl ain't gonna do much against the likes of the Krayt dragon. We need a warrior, and from what I remember 'bout you, you don't like fighting."

"No, I don't," She set her jaw, and continued on. "But in order to kill the dragon, you'll need more than just a blaster..." She left the rest of the sentence unfinished, but the message was clear enough. In order to kill the dragon, they would need explosives, something more, and Tess was the only one who could make such a thing.

The Marshal sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine," he said. Tess didn't smile, but the pain within her lessened. She always felt better after winning a fight with the Marshal.

The Marshal turned to the Mandalorian. "I'll give you the armor," Tess opened her mouth to protest, but the look the Marshal gave her stopped the words from leaving her lips. Tess just wanted the dragon defeated, and she had already lost everything. A piece of armor couldn't do any more damage, she decided.

The Mandalorian said nothing, but eventually caved under Tess' piercing glare. "Deal." he said. "I'll ride back to the ship, blow it out of the sand from the sky, use the Bantha as bait."

Tess snorted and the Marshal smiled. "Not so simple." Tess' face remained emotionless again as the Marshal continued. "The ship passes above, it senses the vibrations, stays underground."

"What kind of ship do you have?" Tess asked. If it was a newer model, Tess could make a few modifications, and they might have been able to make it near silent. She was already working out the plans in her head.

The Mandalorian said. "It's an old Imperial model."

Tess hung her head. "That won't work." The Mandalorian looked like he was going to retort something back, but the Marshal held up a hand.

"I know where it lives," he said.

"How far?" the Mandalorian asked.

The Marshal inclined his head, thinking slowly. "Not far." the Mandalorian nodded and turned away, heading back to his speeder bike parked outside the bar. Tess and the Marshal followed.

"How far, exactly?" Tess asked him. The Marshal turned and looked down at the young girl. He frowned.

"You're not coming, Tess." he said. Tess didn't move, but her hands fell limply to her sides.

"Yes, I am." she replied.

"No, you're not." the Marshal answered. "It's too dangerous. I said you could make the explosives, but nothin else. I can't afford to have anyone hurt."

"I'm already hurt." Tess said. "At least this will give me something to do."

"It ain't just something else to do, Tess. It's a real fight, a real monster, that ain't who you are." Tess' shoulders sagged. "I get it, we all do. But —"

Tess cut in. "If you're gonna kill the dragon, you need a mechanic to figure out the logistics. I'm the mechanic. I'm coming with you."

"Did you not hear a word I just said?" the Marshal replied. "I'm not gonna be the one responsible to see you hurt."

"Vanth," Tess said, eyes blazing. "There are other people you care about more than me. Since when have I ever tried to be anything except the mechanic in this place? I don't like the others, and I don't care to find out if I actually could. You want to help the people of this town? Then back down and let me come with you."

Tess stopped abruptly, her breath leaving her in ragged pants. She frowned and stared down at her shoes. Tess Oprin was a girl of few words, cutting to the point like a dagger to the heart. But these words, the vowels and sentences spoken, were more than she had bargained for. It was as if a hand had grabbed her throat, choking the words out of her. They were pinched and broken, like an accordion that had snapped in half. She'd never expected them to sound so strained, so fractured.

The Marshal sighed, seeing the conflict rise to the surface. He wanted to say no, she knew, he wanted to send her away to Jo's house or to Jynna. The Marshal wanted to keep everyone safe, and that also meant Tess.

But deep down, he knew the girl was partially right. Tess Oprin was a hard person to care much about once you'd known her for some time. When you came face to face with her frank words and cutting frowns, you would want to turn away, never to lay eyes upon her again. The Marshal had been able to gain the girls respect, but that was all. Nothing more, nothing less. The fight was already won, and yet again, the little girl came up on top.

Vanth grimaced, while Tess stood, waiting impatiently. Her face was amused, showing a hint of emotion, but that was just another facade. On the inside, Tess was breaking. She shook her head slightly, shoving everything down to the little knot in her stomach where she sent everything she never wanted to feel to die.

"You coming?" The Mandalorian's voice cut through the tension like a laser. Tess turned on her heel to where the warrior was sitting patiently on his speeder bike, the strange green child held in his arms.

"Yeah." the Marshal said. Together, Tess and him walked over to the Vanth's own speeder, constructed from old pod-racer parts that Tess had converted to help gain speed over the sandy terrain of their planet. She would never understand why the citizens of Tatooine found pleasure in riding such dangerous and poorly built machines for sport, but alas, people did stupid things for no reason all the time. Tess would never understand it.

The Marshal hopped on first, and Tess clambered on behind him, wrapping her nimble fingers around his waist. Her metal leg groaned and creaked, and Tess swore under breath.

"Last chance, Oprin." the Marshal called. Tess sent a blazing glare into the back of his head, and the Marshal thought if she stared long enough, her eyes would burn holes through his skull.

"I'm fine." she growled, holding on tighter and shaking out her leg. Several grains of sand fell to the ground. The Marshal shrugged while the Mandalorian came up beside them. Tess turned back to glance once more at her mechanic shop. Feathery smoke plumed from the ashes that had once been her life, black flakes dusting the tan sands around the broken awning and charred wood. Her vision tunneled on the smudge of a building, metal and wood clawed through by unforgiving talons. It was an art piece of destruction, and in that moment, something inside Tess Oprin snapped.

It was faint, barely visible. The only person to witness the change was the Beskar-clad warrior beside her.

Tess didn't speak, she wasn't even sure if she could breathe. She had pushed it away —the grief, the fury — as she'd spoken with the Marshal and the Mandalorian. Now it came back full force, a hit to the gut that almost knocked Tess off the speeder bike.

The Mandalorian, from where he was, could see the emotions fighting upon the frozen girl's young face. He didn't say anything, but he didn't look away. He knew those looks all too well. It was the same panic-stricken eyes and twitching mouth that he'd once held on his own features. He could feel the pain radiating off her in waves. It was the same pain he'd felt when he'd thought he'd die at the hands of the Empire, not able to protect the little green child now sitting in his hands. The Mandalorian had thought he'd lost that day, and he could see the same thoughts running through the girl's head. It was as clear as crystal, and the Mandalorian refrained from speaking out.

She wanted to be alone. He knew about that as well.

"You ready?" The Marshal asked. The Mandalorian nodded slowly. His eyes were still trained on the girl.

When Tess felt the prickle of someone watching her, her head snapped towards the Mandalorian, who looked away quickly. She scowled and turned forward, staring into space, peering at the nothing from over the Marshal's shoulders.

"Let's go." he said, and the engine of the speeder bike revved as the three sped out into the wastelands of Tatooine. They raced along the sand, specks of grain flicking upwards as they moved. Tess held onto the Marshal, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Tess retreated into her mind, her head, losing all sense of the outside world. She didn't look at the rolling hills she'd thought were beautiful hours before, nor did she notice that both the Mandalorian and the Marshal would sneak glances her way every so often as they sped onward.

She didn't care about them, and certainly didn't give a damn what they thought about her. Tess had lost everything in a span of a few minutes, and she wasn't going to forget it lightly. She grieved on the inside, her bones shattering at the weight of her pain. Tess didn't show any signs, but it was there, the darkness she'd felt when her parents had died was worming it's way through her once again.

The girl of no emotions felt herself breaking, and she hated it.

After a while of wallowing silence, the two men not daring to speak in fear of setting off the girl, the Mandalorian finally spoke up.

"How did this happen?" he asked. Tess looked up, watching the helmeted man. The Mandalorian didn't know whether to stare back or turn away, for the girl's eyes were as lifeless as the sand around them.

(While Tess hated the sands of Tatooine for their inconvenience, it was ironic how much she fit into the landscape around her)

The Mandalorian decided to look away.

"You don't understand what it was like." the Marshal said. Tess stiffened. "The town was on it's last leg." she'd heard this story before, and every time it made her want to break something.

"It started after we got news of the Death Star blowing up." the Marshal continued. "The second on, that is." Despite everything, Tess snorted. "The Empire was pullin' outta Tatooine. There was blaster fire over Mos Eisley." Tess' hands curled into fists, and she closed her eyes. Her parents' bodies, lifeless as the girl's eyes now, hands turned away from eachother, Tess tried not to cry out, her parents never fell asleep without holding hands.

Her mouth turned into an imperceptible line, and she held the tears at bay. They were like stabs  to her eyes, living sins. To anyone, it would have looked like Tess was sleeping, but on the inside, a battle waged war upon her heart.

"The occupation was over." the Marshal's drawl pulled Tess out of her daze, just as it had done before so many times. "We didn't even have time to celebrate. That very night the Mining Collective moved in." the Marshal's voice grew dark. "Power hates a vacuum and Mos Pelgo became a slave camp overnight."

Tess wasn't looking at anything, she was lost, a storm seething beneath her flesh. Memories she'd kept hidden away began to resurface, and with it brought pain she'd always tried to ignore. Her leg throbbed, her nails dug into her palms, and her jaw set. It was in times like these that Tess wished she were a droid, the only thing to worry about being getting an oil bath or your circuits rewired. Oh, to be a girl without feeling. Tess had tried so very hard to become a machine, a monotonous skeleton that now, as the Marshal spoke, she contemplated knocking herself out if only to get rid of the emotions rising like bile in her throat.

"I lit out." the Marshal said. "Took what I could from the invaders. Grabbed a camtono." the Marshal set his shoulders. "I had no idea it was full of silicax crystals."

The Marshal turned his head slightly towards the Mandalorian, who was listening intently. "I guess every once in a while, both suns shine on a womp rat's tail." He smiled slightly, then stopped when he noticed Tess frowning.

"It wasn't a miracle," she said. "It was sheer dumb luck."

The Marshal cleared his throat and turned back around, his face falling. The Mandalorian noted that the girl —Tess, he had to remember her name— didn't notice how much her words had stung. Vanth seemed like a man who just wanted what was best for his town.

The Mandalorian saw the differences between the two. The Marshal would let the womp rat he talked about go free. Tess would stomp on it if it got in her way.

"What happened?" the Mandalorian asked after a beat of silence.

The Marshal sat up straighter, and Tess looked away out into the sands of nowhere. "I wandered for days." he said. "No food, no water." His brows scrunched together. "And then... I was saved."

The Mandalorian cocked his head to one side. Tess spoke up. "Jawas." she stated. Beneath his helmet the Mandalorian flinched. He didn't like those creatures.

The Marshal nodded. "The Jawas wanted the crystals." he said."They offered their finest in exchange. And my treasure bought me more than a full waterskin." A placid look crossed over the Marshal's face. "It bought me my freedom."

"That's why the Banking Collective doesn't run the town anymore." the Mandalorian said. The Marshal nodded.

The Mandalorian turned towards Tess. "And you?"

Tess looked back at him. "What?" she asked coolly.

"How did you get into town?" he asked.

Tess didn't reply, only looked at him with an expression no one —not even Tess— could understand. She contemplated the Mandalorian as he rode beside them, and the Marshal looked between the two, not sure if Tess was about to jump off the bike to throttle the Mandalorian, or if she was simply thinking up an answer. Tess was as unpredictable as the monster they were hunting.

(It was not the first time a townsfolk had made that comparison)

"Tess is our mechanic." Vanth finally said. "The best in all of Mos Pelgo."

"I noticed." the Mandalorian replied. Tess glared at the back of his head.

"She's got a way with machines." the Marshal said, trying to get Tess to smile at the praise. She did not.

"How did you get to be a mechanic for the town?" the Mandalorian asked, directing his question to the girl. Tess did not reply again, only stared. This time the Mandalorian did not back down. He was growing tired of the girl's cold demeanor. She looked like someone who had been through hell and back, and for some reason, the Mandalorian wanted to know why.

The child cooed at the girl, reaching his tiny little arms out to her. Tess growled at the baby, and it squealed, hugging onto the Mandalorian instead. Tess raised an eyebrow. A million questions raced through her head, but she voiced none of them. Why does he carry that strange creature around? Why is he so interested in where I come from? Why did he so willingly agree to help them? It had to be more than just a bit of armor.

The same went with the warrior, as he too had many questions, but he also said nothing.

(They were more alike than they thought)

"Keeps me busy." Tess finally replied, her words like a wash of rain in the dry heat. It snuffed out the fire growing in her belly and brought her back to reality. The world went silent at her words.

Because Tess was rain on a summer morning, a swath of cold on a dry day. She brought the storm with her wherever she went, frowns and fear and frost lined her lips. If she wasn't a child, small and still fragile, the mountains would have trembled when she walked upon their earth. Tess Oprin was a hurricane, and anything she said, anything she did, would wash someone away if they weren't careful. There were very few people that could stand her storm, as Tess made it a priority to wipe out everyone she met.

The Mandalorian was no exception.

They crossed between large mountains of terracotta and burnt orange, the sun casting a heavy glare over the sands. Neither Mando nor the Marshal spoke. They didn't dare. It was no matter, however, because the Mandalorian had gotten the answer he wanted.

Tess wasn't the heartless girl everyone said she was. She was someone trying desperately to waste away, yet not letting herself hurt anyone in the process. Again, the Mandalorian knew what that was like.

He said nothing.

The speeders rounded a corner, continuing under the growing shade cast by the canyons around them. Light and dark shapes began to dance in the side of Tess' vision. Shadows twirled along, broken up by the speeders as they raced along the bend. They were no longer on the soft sands that Mos Pelgo was built upon, now they laid on rough, hardened stone, worn by the many travelers that had sped along their grounds generations past.

These hills were fossils of other times. Times where Empires laid siege to places rich with minerals, times where humanoid beings had never even stepped foot in the terrain of nowhere, times where the planet was ripped apart by crime syndicates and turf wars.

Tess was too young to remember all the details, but she could still feel the chill of history rush along her spine as they continued on through the desert lands. The Marshal sped up, near silent along the sands, when a loud rumbling cry broke the steady silence.

Tess' frozen heart beat rapidly in her chest, stomach twisting in something along the lines of fear. The Marshal put up a hand, signalling them to stop. Both speeders swerved and pulled to the side. The Mandalorian jumped off his speeder bike and the Marshal helped Tess down. She immediately dropped to ground, only her head peering over the side of the bike.

The Mandalorian picked up his rifle and gazed out into the distance. The Marshal pulled out his blaster and pointed it to the direction of the sound ahead of them.

The strange noise rang out again, echoing over the stones. It was everywhere and nowhere all at once. The growling called again, and the green child ducked into the little satchel bag the Mandalorian had put him in.

Tess gulped, her breathing shallow.

From behind the rocks ahead of them, one single snarl rumbled. Tess' heart stopped in her chest, and she thought she might pass out when the large beast poked its head out of the boulders in front of her. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE. 

Here it is, Chapter 2 of Short Circuit! Now quite sure how I feel about this chapter, to be honest. I don't know, I'm just not as proud of it as I was the other two Chapters, but it is probably just my inner perfectionist coming out to mess with my head. That being said, I would love to know what you guys thought of this chapter. Tess met Mando, and she wants revenge on the Dragon, so she'll be going with the Marshal and Mando to look at the cave (and meet the sand people) which should be really interesting! What do you think of Tess and Mando's dynamic? As I was writing, I realized that they actually have a lot in common, so I tried to point out the parallels between the two, which will come into play later. ALSO, why do you think the child is already so attached to Tess, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. 

Love, Mal