Warning: First three pages (for an iPhone screen) are pretty distasteful and might be a little uncomfortable for some people to read.  Proceed with caution.
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Rian walked down the dim hall. The world seemed larger than what she knows now- the walls stretched higher above her, the floors longer beneath her feet. Her steps were small. She was small. In her peripheral, she can see tall Stormtroopers flanking her. They were armed. But they were not there to kill her. They were guarding her.

At the end of the hall, two more Stormtroopers stood at attention next to large double doors. When they spotted Rian, they marched quickly and opened the doors, allowing her inside. Rian could feel her stomach pull. Her brain recognized this dream. This was the worse one.

She entered a cold room. It was a eerie place, entirely made of mirrored glass. She wasn't sure what purpose it served outside of her not being able to look away from what she was about to do. If it was anything worse, she didn't want to know. She looked to her feet as she walked towards her destination. Her eyes were just barely visible underneath the shadow of her hood- they were bright amber.

Rian slowed her approach as she came upon two beings dressed in black, glossy attire, highlighted with red accents. Both of their faces were hidden by black, netted masks, but she could feel their eyes trained on her as she looked up at them.

"Greetings, Thirteenth Sister," the female said with a nod. "Our latest mission was a great success; five Force-sensitive children."

"You're not done proving your loyalty to us. To your Master. Or to the Empire." The male spoke. "You know what you must do."

"Yes." Rian's voice spoke, a higher pitch than it was now. A child's voice. The two dark figures moved aside of reveal the promised children; two infants and three very young toddlers. Rian's hands moved automatically- there was no stopping this dream. No changing it. She was helpless to watch as she grabbed the shiny handles of two identical black weapons. She pressed their buttons with her thumbs, causing brilliant red lasers to shoot out of the shaft, buzzing with blistering energy. One of the babies starting crying.

"Begin whenever you're ready, Thirteenth Sister."

Rian went to the toddlers first. These targets were more mobile and there could be no escape. There was almost no time for them to scream before the lasers cut through them twice- once as Rian swung inward, once outward. Their bodies fell to the floor in steaming parts.

Rian turned to kill the next toddler, but something was very wrong. Instead of the usual child, a Twi'lek, screaming and crying for her mom, Rian saw the Child, wearing his usual brown robes, staring up at her with those huge, warm brown eyes.

She faltered. This dream never changes. "Please finish the job, sister." The woman stated impatiently.

Rian's grip tightened on her weapons, and she marched towards the Child. She raised her blade, knowing it was be over with one fell-swoop. The child cooed and her muscles froze.

"Just do it already!" The man snapped.

"I-I can't." Rian stammered, shaking. The child reached out his clawed hands and grabbed onto Rian's leg, looking at her with perked ears and a sweet smile. Tears welled in her eyes. She didn't understand. This dream never changes.

"Forget it! I'll do it myself!" The man ignited her weapon and lunged at the child.

"NO!" Rian screamed, all the glass around her cracked as everyone around her and the Child were thrown back.

Rian jolted awake, her breaths shallows and fast. Her eyes bounced around the room, checking to make sure she was actually safe. The Child peered at Rian from his pod across the room, his head tilted slightly to the side.

When Rian saw him, her brows furrowed in confusion. The Child sleeps in his cradle next to Rian, not across the room. "What are you doing all the way over there?" She inquired, her voice only a whisper as she continued to gain composure. As she got up and walked towards the Child, she noticed the entire bottom deck of the ship was in disarray, with anything lighter than 200 lbs appearing to have been... thrown back.

"Oh jeez." Rian muttered to herself as she picked the Child up out of his cradle. He smiled excitedly, clapping his hands together slightly, as if he got a kick out of his little joy-ride.  Rian looked over the Child for a moment, checking for injuries from being jostled in his pod.

Or a laser sword.

She shivered, pulling the Child close to her chest for a moment. "It was just a dream." She whispered, whether to herself or the child, she wasn't quite sure. "It wasn't real."

Yes it is. You know those are memories. Rian's thoughts echoed in the back of her head. You have the marks to prove it.

And that was true. The deep, diagonal burn marks on her back correlated to the tee with another recurring dream Rian had. She also had a dream were her right leg was severed for training purpose- she had a very old mechanical replacement to prove that was real. And in the nightmare she had just had, the two beings called her Thirteenth Sister, which matched the "XIII" tattooed in red on her rib cage. These dreams matched what little Rian still carried from the past. They didn't feel like dreams either- they weren't hazy and incomplete. And they never changed. Except for last night. After watching the same memory replay in her dreams for 11 years, her brain managed to change one thing. It put the Child in her dream. And it stopped her.

Why? What did that mean?

"Ah?" The Child's voice broke Rian out of her trance. She looked down at the Child, who's smile had faded as he looked up at Rian with a small frown, the only thing breaking the silence being his quiet breaths.

"It's okay- you're okay." Rian apologized, bouncing the Child lightly. "But your dad's gonna kill me."

Speaking of the devil, Rian was beginning to suspect he had gone on a job, since he hadn't barge downstairs to yell at them yet. After searching the ship a moment for the Mandalorian, Rian found a note laying by the now-crooked ladder ascending to the cockpit. She picked it up and read it.

Went into the city for a job. Bringing back food. I'll be quick. DO NOT LEAVE THE SHIP!!!

Rian pursed her lips. "Rude." She located a pen, set the Child down, and added to the note.

Okay, I'll keep that in mind if the ship ever catches on fire.

"Daddy's so stupid, huh?" Rian asked the Child in a baby tone as she climbed the ladder and set the note on the ship's control dashboard, where she knew he'd find it.

That's when movement in the high grasses of the field caught her eye.

She froze in place, slowly sinking down so that she was just barely peeking over the dash to the field below. In the field, she saw the shiny white domes of Stormtrooper helmets, slowly sneaking through the grass, like they were crawling on their elbows. Every couple seconds, one of them would adjust their arms, causing the nose of their laser blaster to stick up into the air slightly. There were at least a dozen of them, but she lost track when she attempted to keep count, so there was possibly more. They were slowly fanning out around the ship, but rather than striking, they were lying in wait. Rian's stomach twisted into knots when she realized that she could only see the Stormtroopers because she was looking down at them. At eye level, they would be practically invisible.

This was an ambush.

"Oh shit." She cursed, falling back down to the floor as panic began to rise in her chest. Not only were her and the Child sealed in here with no escape route, but Mando would be walking into this blind. She was aware that former imperial undergrounds were after the Child, but they had never hunted down the child themselves- they sent bounty hunters to do that work. Rian had only ever dealt with Stormtroopers the one time they stumbled upon a base accidentally. Never had she felt so unprepared and helpless.

She crawled towards the ladder, her mind racing to come up with some of sort of plan. Obviously, since they weren't raiding the ship, they believed it to be empty. Maybe Mando was spotted somewhere in the city. Rian realized as she descended the ladder that they weren't aware that she was on board with the child- they didn't get the update that the duo had become a trio. They assumed that if Mando was in the city, the Child was as well. Their best chance of catching him was out here in the open, while he was off-guard.

Of course, Rian knew that the Mandalorian was never "off-guard" and that he was a skilled warrior who could likely hold his own against these soldiers. But what if there was more hidden away in the tree line that she couldn't see? What if the mole in the city realized that Mando didn't have the Child with him? She picked the Child up off the ground. He seemed to sense something was making her nervous. He reached out a placed a hand on her cheek. The touch of his skin was like grounding electricity, clearing her head for a quick moment of clarity.

Nothing was touching this child.

"Do you want to play a game?" She asked in an excited whisper. The Child's ears perked slightly. "Let's play a trick on daddy. You and I will hide, and then when daddy gets back on the ship, we'll jump out and surprise him, okay?" She explained slowly. "Does that sound fun?" The child cooed with glee, his brown eyes bright with excitement.

"Okay, okay, I have the perfect hiding spot for you." Rian announced, walking quickly over to the small secret cubby that they'd used to stash the child away from the view of potential bounty hunters. "Wait until you hear dad on the ship. When you hear him call for us, you jump out from this spot. And I'll jump out from mine, and we'll really scare him!" She pinched his cheeks lightly, and the child clapped a couple times. "Okay, shhhh," Rian's placed a finger on her lips, grabbing the door and slowly shutting it.

With the Child secure, she had to move quickly. She went to where she knew Mando stashed old armor, and slipped it on. It fit her very poorly, but that was a good thing. She would need to look bulky to pass for him. She searched for any kind of helmet. She knew there was a slim chance of him carrying a spare, but without hiding her face there would be no way to pull this off.

Then, stashed in a dingy looking, water-damaged box, she found a small helmet. It definitely wasn't beskar metal, like the pauldron Mando sported now, and it was small, dull, dirty. It was flimsy as well, made of a thin plastic rather than metal. Rian realized that this was an old child's play helmet.

"Okay, that adorable." She whispered, slipping it on her head. For once, her years of going hungry paid off- she was small enough for the helmet to fit. She slipped on a black blanket- a cape to hide the mass of curly hair that covered her back. She armed herself with a couple of Mando's spare guns, and grabbed her pillow, swaddling it in a blanket so that it looked like the Child from a distance. She held it in the crease of her arm and took a deep breath, before she pressed the button to lower the entrance ramp.

What she was about to do was so stupid. She could only pray that she would pass for Mando long enough for them to take the bait and leave the ship. She also could only hope that their aim was still as awful as she'd heard.

She stepped out onto the ramp, trying to walk calmly, as though she had no idea that the Stormtroopers were there, waiting. It took a couple seconds for one of them to shot, and by then, she was already off the ramp. The shot flew out around her, missing and hitting the metal ramp. She aimed and fired back, but knew that her chances of landing a shot were slim- her aim was just as criminally bad. She walked sideways quickly, firing as she skirted around the ramp, before booking it for the trees.

Rian had been correct in guessing that there were even more soldiers that she couldn't see. They stood up out of the grasses, at least twenty, ready to give chase. As she neared the trees, blurs of white movement converged on her, and shots rang out from all sides. She could only thank Mando that even his old armor still held some protective properties from the shots. Her body would only be covered in small burns and bruises, but she had to stay moving if she wanted to avoid anything worse. She evaded capture, turning back and firing a couple more times as she lured them into the forest.

Back by the ship, six Stormtroopers had halted to a stop. One reached to his helmet, pressing the radio button. "This is JS-3915 reporting movement from the ship. We have Din Djarin heading south east into the trees. He has the Child."

There were nothing but static for a moment, before a response sounded in his ear. "That's not possible. He can't be in two places at once. He must be up to something." The voice growled back in irritation. The static filled the soldier's helmet again, before the voice jumped back on the line. "It's been some time since we've encountered him. He must have recruited a crew member- someone that saw you setting up the ambush. This is likely some sort of ploy to lead you away from the ship."

"Should I order the troops back?"

"No, let them capture the bait. One of them has to have that child. Have your squadron stay with the ship. Stay alert. When Din Djarin returns, I want you to execute him. Fail to do so, and when I get there, you'll be executed with him."

~~~~~

Rian had no idea how far she'd ran, how much distance was between her and the ship. But she was gasping for air. Her lop-sided gait was getting worse with every step, and her other leg and core muscles were paying the price for it. Shots still rang out all around her, making her clench her teeth and hold the fake baby tightly. The blaster in her free hand was useless. Turning to shoot them back would cause her to slow down, which would ultimately result in her death.

Do the magic. She urged herself silently. Really, it was her only choice. Her aim was hopeless and she had no other weapons. Her only hope of surviving was doing that- that thing.

Only she didn't know how to do it. Not consciously, anyways. She's pretty sure she knew how to summon it at one point, but that knowledge went with all her other memories. It just kind of happened when she needed it the most.

Well, you need it NOW. Her thoughts snapped as she ducked through the brush, fear building up in her chest. Her fingers dug into the swaddled pillow, her leg tightening in anguish, begging to slow down. Her lungs burned with every breath. A laser whizzed past her face, melting a sliver of the plastic helmet. Their footsteps were pounding so hard behind her, she could feel it. She could feel them behind her. Her senses became hyperactive as her skin began to crawl, like her body was waking up. It was now or never.

"DO IT!" She screamed to herself, out-stretching her arm and clenching her hand in the direction of a small tree in front of her. She spun around, feeling the tree rip from the dirt as she directed it at the Stormtroopers. It flew past her into the swarm. She didn't take time to watch the damage. She kept running, urging the other trees around her to create a barrier behind her.

The brush creaked and cracked around her, and the shots finally ceased as the soldiers had to scramble backwards to avoid being crushed. Rian's eyes scanned her surroundings, desperate to find somewhere to hide while they were distracted. She settled on a hollow tree trunk tucked in the brush to her right, practically throwing herself into the grimy darkness.

"DM-0451 reporting. The Mandalorian is a force-sensitive. Requesting backup." She could faintly hear one of the Stormtroopers yell into their radio.

"Damnit." Rian growled to herself.

"Yes sir. The mission is capture and incapacitate now." The trooper reported to his squadron. "Moff Gideon will decide what to do with him when he arrives."

"Spread out and find him."

She could hear their footsteps echoing around her, and there was no escape route that she could see. To stay in the log meant capture- it wasn't that hard to bend down and peer into. To crawl out meant being captured, only faster. She was too tired to be upset. All of her energy completely drained from manipulating the forest around her.

The footsteps walked right along the log, and she looked up lazily as a Stormtrooper peered into the log. "We got him." He reached in, pulling her out and ripping the pillow out of her hands. She smirked as he realized it was a fake. Her ears were ringing though, she couldn't quite hear what they were saying- the words sounded like distant booming. Someone had talking over the radio. Someone who was minutes from arriving on the scene. That seemed to make the Stormtroopers antsy as one of the soldiers handcuffed her.

"Trouble with the boss?" Rian teased from beneath the mask. She wondered if they still thought she was Mando. Idiots.

"Shut it." The trooper pistol-whipped the helmet, cracking the plastic like a egg-shell and slicing her temple.

"What the hell?" Another Stormtrooper spoke when he saw the helmet crack. "That's not Beskar."

"This isn't the Mandalorian."

"Damnit."

"We're so dead."

"He's here."

A couple of Stormtroopers briefly discussed deserting as a black TIE fighter descended gracefully onto the forest floor. Rian thought Mando would be impressed with the pilot's skills, maneuvering through the canopy with relative ease.

A man in thick, black clothing emerged from the ship. He was an older man, with wrinkled, dark skin and a deep frown to match his dangerous eyes. The Stormtroopers immediately stood at attention as he set foot on the ground.

"Who gave the order to pursue the imposter?"

One Stormtrooper stepped forward. In the next second, the man had raised a blaster and shot the Stormtrooper in the chest. The soldier collapsed.

The man turned his attention to Rian. "Remove their helmet." He commanded. The Stormtrooper closest to Rian turned to her and grabbed the plastic helmet in his hands, yanking it off. The air felt cool on Rian's skin as she stuck in a huge breath of air. It was so much easier to breath without that thing covering her face.

Moff Gideon walked towards Rian. "It's is peculiar." He muttered, squatting so that he was closer to Rian's face. He grabbed her chin in his gloved hand, his eyes narrowing. He scanned over her features carefully. "What's your name?"

She tried to shake her face free from his hand, but his grip was vise-like. "Rian." She growled.

He blinked at the sound of her voice. He pursed his lips as the puzzle pieces fell together in his mind. "Impossible. There's no way, the Inquisitors were all killed." Goosebumps raised up on Rian's skin when she heard the word "inquisitor". She knew that word. She hated that word. He watched her reaction for a moment, before his eyes flinted to her side. "Do you have a 13 tattooed on your side?"

Rian's stomach dropped, flipped, and jumped all at once. She thought she might throw up as she up at the man in horror. "How did you know that?" She whispered.

A sly smile pulled at the corner of his lip. "Looks like we have a lot to talk about, Thirteenth Sister." Moff Giddon stood up, turning to the Stormtroopers. "Get her on the ship. There's been a change of plans."

~~~~~

Din trudged through the brush of the forest, tired but pleased with the success he had today. A nice, clean job done without any bounty hunters coming after the Child. Credits earned and spent accordingly on fuel and groceries, which Din now carried to the field where the ship sat waiting.

When he stepped out into the field, however, he was meant with a onslaught of gun fire. He dropped the bags of food instantly, his blasters firing and hitting their target every time. Within a couple minutes, the fighting was over, and Din stood alone in the field, his guns steaming as he looked over the six dead Stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers.

The Child.

"Rian!" He shouted, racing towards the ship. His heart dropped when he saw the entrance ramp had been lowered. He armed himself again, ascending with no hesitation. He found himself aiming for a target that didn't exist. The lower deck seemed deserted.

"Rian?" He called again. He heard a small door creak open, and relief flooded over him when he saw the Child poke his head out and squeal.

"What kind of trouble are you getting yourself into?" He asked, stepping into the room, which looked like a Gungan had flounced through it. Din assumed the Stormtroopers had turned the place upside down looking for the Child.

"Okay, little guy, where's Rian?" He inquired.

The Child seemed to be wondering the same thing. "Ah!" He called out as he looked around the ship, his eyes wide with sadness and confusion. "AAAHH!" He yelled louder, slapping Din's forearm in a small tantrum.

Din didn't like how this was looking. Had Rian hid the Child just before the Stormtroopers raided it? Had there been more before he arrived? "Okay, come on." He muttered, placing the child in his pod, and sealing it closed. He pressed the button for the cradle to follow him as Din exited the ship.

He turned on his infrared, training his eyes on the ground. His visors allowed him to recent footsteps without having to search for impressions in mud and grass. Ignoring his footprints, he could see that only one person exited the ship, and that person prints were lost in a sea of red and yellow impressions in the ground.

Din's heart quickened as he raced off into the field, the child's pod trailing behind him. He entered the forest, branches smacking into his helmet and his boots catching twigs and roots as he kept his eyes trained on the forest floor. The army of prints led him deep into the forest, the canopy blocking out most light.

Eventually, he was brought to a very sudden stop when he ran straight into a large tree trunk laying in the middle of the pathway.

He staggered back, holding his head for a moment as he caught his breath. The child's pod slowed to a stop beside him. As he steadied himself, he looked around at the scene. The immediate forest around him was torn up, and in front of him where two very large trees that seemed to have snapped off their trunks and crashed into the path of Rian and the Stormtroopers.

That's when Din realized that he could see the limp limbs of Stormtrooper armor sticking out from underneath the trunks at a few points. His eyes widened in surprise, before he glanced at the pod containing the Child. The child had performed similar feats saving Din and himself from danger before. And Din had witnessed Rian do it once before as well. This had to have been her handy work.

"Rian?" He called out again, blaster drawn as he lifted himself over the tree trunk. On the other side of the tree trunks, the sea of footsteps ended about 30 feet away. Din jogged over there, seeing that the surrounding brush was flattened significantly, like they had been blasted by strong winds. Aircraft had been here. This was confirmed when Din looked up and saw chunks of the canopy missing above.

"Rian? If you're okay and you think hiding is funny, I'm gonna strangle you." Din shouted the empty threat for anybody nearby to hear as he continued to survey the scene. That's when his boot kicked a hard object. He looked down to see a Mandalorian helmet- a child's play thing, dirty and discolored from years of poor storage. Din recognized it as his own as he picked it up and examined it.

It was impossible to miss the huge chunk of plastic missing at the would-be temple of helmet. Din flipped it to observe the inside and sure enough, congealed blood had formed a small pool in a divot by the injury site.

The Child cried out loudly from inside the pod and Din clicked the button, allowing it to open. The child observed that scene around him with wide eyes, before his eyes settled on a large white body laying on the forest floor. A Stormtrooper, laying face down and presumed dead.

Except Din could see that he was breathing.

"Hey!" He yelled, dropping the helmet as he stormed over and ripped the man off his stomach, pushing him up again a rock. The man was gasping underneath the helmet as Din pressed his gun to his shielded forehead. "Where is the girl?"

"Moff Giddon- they took the Thirteenth- Ah." He grabbed at his chest. "The Inquisitor is going to the base on Kijimi."

"I said the girl, you useless piece of plastic. If you don't tell me-"

"Rian, that's her name right? That's the Inquisitor!" The Stormtrooper hissed through clenched teeth. "They're taking her to Kijimi. Moff Gideon said there was work to do with her."

Din stared at him a moment, confused, before he pushed the Stormtrooper back onto the ground and walked back over to the Child.

He looked at Din with wide eyes, his lower lip quivering slightly. "I know, buddy. Don't worry." He picked the plastic helmet off the ground and handed it to the child. "We're going to get her."