As I walk in the direction of the base we're about to destroy, I think. I think back to all the time I've spent with the Mandalorian since we met in my tavern back home.  I recall the strange urge I felt when offered to join him on his journeys. It's the same urge I feel now, as we approach the bounty.

It's like a pull deep within me. I felt it when I first saw my big metal man. It feels like the very fabric of my being is being unwoven and tugged toward something powerful. The thread that is me intertwines with another; although this time I don't think it's with Din. It feels foreign, like I'm unfamiliar with this being.

Our paths have crossed for a reason, Din and I, and it feels like we're inseparable now. We are one, one coupling in the fabric of reality that fits together because it is meant to be. The Jedi and the Mandalorian.

But, there is another. Another energy pulling to me, and I feel it in the pit of my stomach. With each step I take closer to this building, the stronger the pull becomes. My senses becomes heightened, and every single sound from the trees alerts my brain. I feel on edge, like something catastrophic is about to happen. Something that will change everything.

*

"Are you ready?" Din asks me. He's fastened everything to himself as he prepares to bring me up into the air to my drop off spot. We're about a quarter mile from the northern side of the building, hopefully where there are no aerial guards watching the sky.

"I think so," I respond. I push the transponder deeper into my ear, ensuring it won't fall out during the ride. I hit the bottom button on the controller and send a beep to Din. He nods once, so I know he heard it.

"Just stick to the plan. If anything is wrong, let me know."

I nod my head sheepishly, knowing this could go either extremely well, or extremely bad. The feeling of doom in my stomach suggests the latter, however. 

Din grabs both of my shoulders and leans down to my face. 

"Close your eyes," he tells me. I close my eyes.

The hiss of his helmet is distinct in this quiet, snowy jungle and wildly out of place. Then, I feel a soft pair of lips connect with my own. I jump a little at the feeling, unexpecting  of such a gesture. Then, I savor it. I use all five of my senses to take in this moment. The cold air on my skin, Din's warm lips moving upon mine. The strong grip of his hands holding my shoulders in place. The scent of his breath mingling with my own.

His helmet is back on before I'm ready for the moment to end. 

"Hold on tight," Din tells me. He turns me around and wraps his arms around my chest from behind, under my arms. 

He gives a little hop, and we're up in the air. The jetpack boosts us into the atmosphere gently, and I watch as the ground gets farther and farther away. The air surrounding us grows colder as we ascend into the sky. The snow falls more dense up here, and the landscape beneath disappears under the blanket of white.

We go as high up into the atmosphere as we can before we move over top of the building. Once there, we descend straight down onto the roof. Din's boots hit the ground before mine with a heavy thud.

Once on flat ground, Din lets me go. His armor is significantly colder than the air, and it's coated in a layer of frost now. My whole body shivers aggressively.

"Don't forget the plan. Good luck, Jedi," Din bids me a farewell.

"You too, Mandalorian."

"This is the way," he says, then hops off the side of the roof.

I stand, now alone on the roof of the enemy's base. I check each of the pockets and holsters on my belt and make sure nothing was lost on the trip over here. All is present and accounted for.

I look around to locate the targeted vent; A few steps to my left. I take a deep, cleansing breath to calm my nerves and walk over to it. 

I place my hands on the sides of the vent cover to pull it off, but I freeze. An overwhelming feeling of dread takes over my body the second I make contact with the metal.

My eyes snap open as far as they can go, and my teeth clench tightly shut, aching the muscles in my jaw. An energy bubbles in the growing pit in my stomach.

I rip my hands from the vent cover as quickly as I can. The feeling is gone, immediately.

"Heading into east entrance now," Din mutters over the communicator.

I shake my head and rub my eyes for a second before responding to him, "Copy." I take one good look at my surroundings on the roof. Then, I reach down and try again.

I set my hands on the vent cover, but this time it feels normal. No strange full-body despairing feeling. My eyebrows furrow, trying to understand what just happened. But, I have no time to think.

I take the cover off and toss it to the ground before lifting myself up and into the vent head first. It's not the most comfortable thing, but I fit. Din was right; he certainly could not fit in here with how broad he is. It's only a few feet long to the other end of the vent, but quite easy to shuffle my way through. I wiggle my shoulders and use my knees to push myself along in the metal tube until I reach the other end.

"About to jump down into the room," I tell Din. He sends one beep back to acknowledge he got my message. I peer through the grates in the vent cover down into a dim room with several mechanical machines inside. There are no people inside. No droids either, from what I can tell. 

The vent I'm in trails off to the left as well, presumably to some other rooms. Sound can probably travel through these vents to other rooms, though. Must be silent.

I push on the cover just in front of my face, but it's fastened tightly. I push as hard as I can in this strange angle, but it won't budge. I can't use brute force because it would be too loud.

"Din, the vent won't come off," I buzz over the comm link.

"Use the saber," he tells me through grunts and tired pants. I can hear the sounds of blaster fire in the background of his message. The strain in his unfiltered voice sends a chill down my spine.

Now is not the time for that.

I scoot myself backwards in the vent a few inches and reach to the saber in my belt holster. Keeping a decent distance from the metal grate, I ignite the saber right through the metal. I trace the outline of the opening and slice through the metal. Sparks fly, some hitting me in the face. 

Once I'm through, the cover falls off and clatters very loudly to the floor.

Fuck.

I scoot a little father back into the vent and put my saber away in my belt, waiting to see if anyone comes to investigate the noise. 

"Koda?" Din calls for me, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. I got the cover off but it was very loud so I'm waiting a few seconds."

"Good job," he says in this low, gravely voice.

I wait another thirty seconds or so, but nobody comes to investigate. I shimmy my way down and put my head through the opening. The room is dark and seemingly vacant. It looks like a boiler room, or something similar. There just a few humming machines at work in various corners. No cameras, no people, no droids. 

I grab the bottom of the opening and lead the rest of my body out of the vent. I tuck my head downwards and allow my body to do a little flip coming out of the vent, now dangling by my hands on the wall of this dark room.

"Koda, I'm in. Clearing the bottom floor no- ching," Din's message is cut off by the sound of some weapon hitting his armor in a high-pitched clash.

My feet are only a few feet from the ground, so I let go and land on the ground with a thud as quiet as I can manage. 

"I'm in," I tell him.

"Kill the power," he tells me. The sound of a squelching body is heard in the background.

I pull the fob out from my belt. The red light blinks more rapidly, telling me the bounty is close. 

I search the walls in the small room for a fuse, or something that looks like it controls the power supply to the building. There isn't anything obvious, but there are many light switches on the one wall, unlabeled, of course.

"Not seeing a fuse box in here," I speak into the communicator.

"Just start hittin' buttons," he tells me. I can still hear his fight going on in the background of his message.

So, I do just that. I flip all the light switches on the one wall and press every button that I can find on the whirring machines.

"Lights went out down here," Din tells me, much quieter now. I duck down now, keenly aware that there will probably be enemies on their way to this closet right now. I stand with my blaster in hand with my back on the wall next to the only door in the room, leading right out to the hallway.

I stand as still as I can and listen for any commotion on the other side of the door. Silence.

"Din, check in?" I ask him.

"All good."

I wait another few seconds, making sure there's nobody on the other side of the door before turning the handle slowly. The door creaks open revealing a dimly lit hallway that leads in one direction only. The emergency lights of the building illuminate my surroundings, but only just barely.

I walk slowly out of the closet down the hallway, blaster drawn in front of me. The place is eerily quiet, very different from Din's situation, which sounds quite loud and violent over the transponder. Maybe he's drawn all the enemies downstairs.

I continue down the hallway until it turn to the right. I follow it to a four-way intersection of hallways. Not sure which way to go, I choose the leftmost one. That magnetic feeling in the pit of my stomach draws me down this hallway. 

I walk a little quicker now, still not hearing any enemies. I round another few corners down this winding hallway to a large, open room. It looks like it's a business meeting room. One large, long table sits in the center of the room,  surrounded by at least twenty chairs. 

Immediately, the energy feels off in this room. It puts my senses on high alert. Something isn't right here. I peer into the room, putting only one foot into the doorframe. All the chairs are empty except for one, all the way at the far end of the table, facing away from me. 

I step out of the room and hit the talk button, "I think I found our guy," I tell Din. The puck in my pocket flashes its light at a very quick pace, faster than I've ever seen it go.

I take one step inside the room again, blaster fixed at the occupied chair. I take a few more slow steps into the room, toward my target. The chair rotates slowly to face me, and I stop dead in my tracks. 

A humanoid woman sits in the chair, now facing me.

"A Jedi," she says.

Confused, I say nothing. How does she know?

"I'd been waiting for you for quite some time," she says.

"Where's your boss?" I ask, looking for the bounty target. 

"My boss? Oh, darling, no. I am the boss here," she says, crossing her legs one over the other in her chair.

"Oasti Dann?" I ask, clearly quite confused.

"You and your little metal friend have made quite the mistake." 

My muscles tense, involuntarily. My blaster falls from my grip as my arms fall forcefully to my sides. My neck contorts in a way to prevents me from breathing. 

I'm choking.

I struggle against my own muscles, trying desperately for a single gulp of air. 

"You see, there's a reason why my bounty is so high. So many brave warriors come here and try the same little plan that you've just attempted. But all perish tragically... violently..."

The pressure building in my blood vessels feels like I'm about to burst.

She must be a Jedi, no. A Sith. Something evil.

I struggle against her hold on me, fighting a losing battle. That energy bubbling in me feels like it's spilling over, ready to burst. 

"It's adorable that you thought you could somehow outsmart me."

I hear Din in my ear, "Koda, check in." He whispers, presumably trying to be quiet as he makes his way up here in the darkness.

Unable to answer, I use every ounce of strength in me to fight against her force choke. I can feel reality beginning to slip away from me, losing oxygen too quick. 

"Nobody outsmarts me, darling," the woman says, getting up out of her chair.

I focus my dwindling energy on the force. I know I can feel it. I've always felt it. I just don't know how to harness it. 

Focus.

My eyelids feel heavy and the world seems to be dimming slowly. The burning feeling in my lungs begs for air. 

The life force within me dims as well, I can feel my being drain from me, as well as my consciousness. 

Focus.

My muscles relax ever so slightly. Just enough to open my airways a single millimeter.

A gasp rushes into my lungs, illuminating the world around me once again, filling me with consciousness and a burning need for triumph.

The woman's eyes grow wide, watching me fight against her hold. 

"Koda?" Din asks over the communicator again, this time with much worry in his voice. Still unable to move my body, I can't respond to him. It sounds like he's sprinting.

"Impossible," she says, now standing closer to an exit door behind her. She stares at me in bewilderment. "I've never seen anyone block a force choke."

I'm not skilled enough to do anything else, but at least I can breathe. She backs away slowly with her back toward the exit door just as it flings open, revealing a very angry looking metallic man.