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The appearance of a battle droid at Luke’s school had the adults on edge. Rex kept his blaster holstered and ready. Not that it had done much good last time. But he didn’t have a fancy lightsaber, so he figured he’d make do.
Luke took the baby jedis out a couple days later on a fun and exciting field trip to use their Force powers to search under the ground for anything else that might be lurking. Rex and Cody accompanied the troupe of tykes over the grounds in their full armor. If the kids caught on, Luke’s chipper attitude helped keep their suspicions at bay.
The kids largely kept focus, holding each other’s hands and stretching their awareness in the Force or whatever they called the meditative technique. Luke declared break time when they reached an open grassy meadow dotted with wildflowers. The kids screeched with excitement and broke formation.
“Let’s remember to stay together,” Luke called as one of the younger kids chased after a butterfly.
Rex helpfully herded the little one back towards her classmates.
A gaggle of giggles drew Rex’s attention. Cody stood baffled in the middle of a circle of children. They all pointed and laughed at his helmet for no reason Rex could see. Cody lifted his head towards Rex. Rex snorted. The pale-yellow butterfly the girl had been chasing perched on Cody’s helmet, on the rim of his visor.
“You’ve got a passenger,” Rex helpfully pointed to his own helmet.
Cody swatted at his face. The kids made distressed noises for the butterfly’s welfare. Cody froze. The butterfly lazily flexed its iridescent wings. Cody stood stiff, clearly unsure how to proceed. Rex trotted over.
“Hold still.” Rex reached out a finger and nudged the butterfly. It crawled easily onto his hand. Rex crouched down and offered the yellow pest to the children. They cooed with amazement.
Luke’s shadow crossed over Rex. He looked up. Luke clapped a hand on Cody’s shoulder and leaned over Rex to see the butterfly.
“Lovely,” Luke commented. “I wonder if it’s attracted to your white armor?”
Cody stiffened beside Rex. Rex’s heart squeezed painfully. The lack of orange stripes anywhere on Cody’s beskar’gam stood as a sore point for Cody. It reminded him of everything he’d lost to the Empire, including his General and his troopers. Cody had confided in Rex over drinks that putting on the pure white plastoid had brought about a memory of scrubbing off the orange sunset. The flakes of paint hitting the ground. The lack of awareness. The cold.
Rex had offered to help Cody repaint the armor. They hadn’t found the time yet.
Luke must have sensed the shift in Rex and Cody. He gave Cody’s shoulder a gentle shake. “Let’s pack it in for today, shall we?”
“No droids?” Rex asked.
“No droids,” Luke confirmed.
Thank the kriffing Maker. Rex had no desire to fight another tank today.
Luke led the kiddos back to the school house with its white stone walls shimmering in the heat of the day. Rex and Cody broke off to leave the Jedis to their lessons. The brothers moved into the cool of the building’s interior.
“You good?” Rex bumped his blue pauldron against Cody’s white one.
“Yeah,” Cody nodded. “I’m fine.”
“It’s okay not to be,” Rex offered.
Cody pulled off his helmet. The scar around his eye pulled tight as he frowned. “I have good days and bad days same as you. This wasn’t a bad day. If it was, I’d tell you.”
“That’s all I ask,” Rex said. He meant it. And he knew Cody expected Rex to come to Cody if he had a bad day too. They had to lean on each other. Maker knew nobody else shared their same grief in this place.
Cody headed for his room. Rex backtracked to the cafeteria. He’d missed lunch on their outing with the padawans. If there was no pudding left, Rex seriously considered taking Cody and leaving this planet behind. Thankfully, Rex found a bowl of butterscotch pudding in the cooler among the subpar strawberry jello.
Rex took his pudding and looked for an empty table. He found Din sitting at a table in his clanking armor trying to convince the Green Menace to eat a piece of yellow fruit. The kid stubbornly refused, pushing Din’s gloved fingers away.
“Troubles?” Rex asked. He slid into the seat across form Din and placed his helmet on the table.
Din sighed. “Nothing a little bribery can’t fix.”
Miniscule Yoda’s ears perked up. Rex narrowed his eyes. The kid understood much more than he ever let on.
Din pulled out a package of dried sugar snacks shaped like fish from one of the pockets on his belt. He shook the bright wrapper at the child. “I will give you one of these if you eat your fruit. It’s healthy. You need the vitamins.”
Seedling Yoda considered the treats and the slice of fruit. He made his decision. Clawed fingers stuffed the entire wedge of fruit in his too small mouth.
“Slowly,” Din grabbed at the kid as Even-Shorter-Than-Yoda started choking. “One bite at a time, you know that.”
“How does he swallow frogs whole and still have trouble with fruit?” Rex asked.
Din shrugged. “If I knew anything about how his diet worked, I’d praise the Manda.”
Din sat back in his chair. He passed one of the vibrant fish snacks to the kid. Yoda’s Love Child garbled happily. Din sighed like he knew he’d been played by a toddler.
Din’s visor came up to look at Rex. “I had something I wanted to ask you.”
“Yeah?” Rex leaned his vambrace on the table.
“It’s about the beskar thieves,” Din said.
Rex raised an eyebrow. Din hadn’t mentioned them since the meeting with Bo Katan. Rex had assumed Bo Katan had forced Din to pass the issue to another Mandalorian to deal with. Apparently not. “Do you have another lead?”
“No, that’s the problem,” Din explained. “My source may have been found out by the dealers. I haven’t heard from them in weeks.”
Rex leaned back. “What are you going to do?”
Din hesitated. “I’d like you to come with me to check on them.”
Rex hummed in surprise. “You want me to go with you on a welfare check?”
“I’m conspicuous,” Din said in his sardonic way.
Rex snorted. Yeah, rolling up to beskar thieves in a literal suit of the precious metal was asking for a knife between the ribs.
“Alright,” Rex agreed. “But I’m bringing Cody.”
Din studied Rex for a full minute before he nodded.
“When do we leave?”
“As soon as you’re finished your pudding.”
Rex refused to wolf down his pudding. Butterscotch was his one true love in life and he’d be kriffed if he wasted it. After licking his bowl clean, Rex went and got Cody.
“Hey,” Rex knocked his knuckles on Cody’s open door. “Din’s got a job for us.”
“Kriffing finally,” Cody exclaimed. He shoved his desk chair away from his computer. “If I have to look over one more string of farming figures today, I’m cancelling the colony on Cor-3.”
Cody grabbed his helmet from his perfectly made bunk and followed Rex out of the school to the landing platform.
Din’s ship sat ready to go. The engines hummed as they warmed. Rex looked up at the gleaming silver of the ship. At a glance, it was well maintained, with no atmospheric radiation scuffing the metal plates. On further inspection, though, the slightly different wear on the mismatched plating revealed a lifetime of replaced parts. The rumble of the left engine whined higher than the right. The ramp had a dent only detectable when it lowered. The ship was old. Old but loved.
Din himself clanked about in the ship’s interior when Rex ascended the ramp. Din swore in Mando’a at the fuel line still refusing to connect to the injector.
“Want a hand?” Cody offered.
Din looked up. “You willing to get that white armor dirty?”
Cody’s smirk sharpened. “Willing doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Rex left them alone to wrestle with the fuel line. He climbed up into the cockpit.
Din joined him shortly, wiping his oily gloves on a rag. He said nothing as he flipped the switches and set the course. The ship lifted off. Din put them into hyperspace. Rex waited until the stars blurred to speak.
“Where are we headed?” Rex asked.
“Tatooine,” Din answered.
“Kark,” Rex swore. “If I knew we were going to visit the backside of the galaxy, I would have reconsidered this job.”
“You want out, I have a semi-working escape pod.” Rex heard the laugh in Din’s voice.
Cody came up the ladder behind them. As Din predicted, smears of grease marred Cody’s pristine white armor. It reminded Rex to make time to help Cody paint his armor again. Would Cody still want orange? If not, Rex had some leftover blue paint.
“So,” Cody leaned against the back of Rex’s seat, likely smudging grease all over it. “Who’s your contact in the beskar business?”
Din tipped his helmet in Cody’s direction. “Her name is Tia. She’s a ruthless mercenary. She’ll always take the highest payout.”
Rex hummed. “So you paid her to flip on the beskar thieves, but you think she might have taken a bribe to flip back?”
Din’s pauldrons shrugged around his ears. “Either that or they caught and killed her.”
They made their plans to make contact with Tia and went their separate ways on the cramped ship to catch a few hours sleep before they arrived at Tatooine.
The ship landed amid the sand and sand and more sand at Mos Eisley. Rex exited the ship and immediately felt his skin pucker at the heat.
“Lets’ go,” Rex shoved at Cody next to him. “The longer we stay here the more likely I am to turn into a cactus.”
Cody nodded. The rough grey cloak he’d thrown over his white plastoid disguised him well enough. Rex wished they could have brough their helmets to shield the from the twin suns, but the key word on this mission was inconspicuous. Rex wore his chest plate and pauldrons under a bulky tan jacket. He pulled a scarf over his head and face to keep the sand out. Cody lifted a pair of goggles onto his head. They moved out.
Tia’s last transmission to Din had been sent from a tavern in Mos Eisley. Cody and Rex made their way there. In the heat of midday, most people had hidden from the suns’ harsh rays. The tavern bustled with all kinds of folks. Everybody had a drink and a loud mouth. Yelling across the bar, a Weequay man toppled off his stool. Rex neatly sidestepped the fallen man and scanned for anyone who met Din’s description of Tia. He looked for grey skin, humanoid, with spiky black hair. Din said she always wore a metric tonne of silver jewelry. Rex caught a glint in the corner of the bar.
There she was. Just sitting there, nursing a glass. Looking bored amid the carousing. The ring piercing in her nose winked as she scowled at the couple of rowdy men in the booth beside her.
Rex nudged Cody. Cody went one way and Rex took the other, flanking Tia in without her knowledge. Rex got there first. He slid into the booth beside her.
Tia’s eyes narrowed beneath her heavy makeup. “Get lost,” she told him.
“We need to talk,” Rex answered. “Outside.”
Tia snorted. She gulped the rest of her drink. She stiffened at the press of Rex’s knife to her side.
Tia set the glass down carefully. “You sure you want to do this?”
Force help him, she sounded like a bad holo-movie.
“Yep. Move.” Tia got to her feet. Rex saw the second she decided to make a run for it. She darted out of Rex’s reach, right into Cody’s waiting arms.
Her wide eyes flicked between Cody and Rex. “Kark,” she spat.
“Let’s take this somewhere quiet, shall we?” Cody said. Rex resisted the urge to smack him. Everybody sounded like a soap opera today.
Rex and Cody escorted Tia out the back of the bar into a dingy alley. Sand piled up between the trash bins back there. Tia twisted out of Cody’s grip.
“I don’t know what the Empire wants, but I don’t know anything.”
The Empire? Cold washed over Rex as he realised what she meant. She’d made the connection that Cody and Rex were clones. She thought they were Stormtroopers. His stomach knotted.
“We’re not part of the Empire,” Rex explained. “We’re here on behalf of your employer.”
Tia’s brow furrowed. “Which one?”
Holy Force above, how did people like this survive?
“Try the Mand’alor,” Cody growled. He bullied Tia up against the rough wall behind her. “The Mand’alor wants to know why you’ve suddenly cut contact. You’re not dead, so it looks like you’ve double crossed him. That’s not good, kid.”
Tia sneered at being called a kid. Honestly, under the black eyeliner and piercings studding her face, she looked nineteen or twenty. A babe. The underworld belonged to children now.
“Just tell us what happened.” Rex was already tired of this exchange. And the sweat clinging to his armor wasn’t helping his mood.
Tia glanced between Rex and Cody. She seemed to make up her mind. “You know Hondo Ohnaka?”
Unfortunately, Rex did.
“That kriffer isn’t dead yet?” Cody exclaimed.
But Rex, like anyone who had actually met Hondo in the flesh, knew that Hondo had elaborately planned out his own theatrical death scene, complete with a revenge fuelled grudge, and if he couldn’t have that, then the old pirate refused to die at all. And worse, Rex knew how Hondo operated. It all became clear.
“So,” Rex summarised. “You decided to jump in with Hondo, but neglected to tell the Mand’alor that you were cutting your contract short. Does that sound right?”
Tia squirmed under the attention. Rex leaned close. He used his blank stare and hulking shoulders to his advantage. Tia shrank back.
“What you forgot to figure into your calculations,” Rex growled. “Is that the Mand’alor doesn’t leave loose ends. Which is exactly what you’ve become.”
“I didn’t-,” Tia stammered.
Rex slammed his fist against the wall next to her head. “Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll split you open and go looking for answers among your innards.”
Cody made a face over Tia’s shoulder. Rex mentally shrugged. He was finally speaking Tia’s language. She started babbling.
“Hondo wants the beskar dealers on his side. He wants to be their middle man to get the beskar onto better markets. More money. Bigger profits. I’m just his messenger.”
“And what about the Mand’alor?” Rex growled.
Tia made a face that scrunched all of her piercings. “He’s wiping out the beskar market. No more deals going through means I don’t get paid. It’s not a beneficial situation.”
“You know the dealers are killing Mandalorians?” Cody snarled.
Tia shrugged. “I don’t do that part. I just set up deals.”
Rex crowded her up against the wall. “You’re going to set up a deal for us. We want to meet your employers.”
Rex and Cody returned to Din’s ship. He stood in the middle of the landing pad with his hands on his hips while a tiny mechanic with wild curly hair badgered him. From the relaxed angle of Din’s shoulders, it looked to Rex like Din enjoyed the verbal barrage.
Rex heard her speaking as they approached. “I’m going to start charging you for every time you don’t bring that sweet baby with you for a visit.”
“I don’t think you can do that,” Din answered evenly.
“I can and I will,” the mechanic threatened. “Who else on this sand dune are you going to find to take care of your hunk of junk?”
Rex cleared his throat as he came up behind Din.
The mechanic scowled. “You going to introduce me to your friends, Mando?”
“This is Peli Motto,” Din said. “Peli, this is Rex and Cody.”
“Pleasure, miss,” Cody said.
“Miss?” Peli simpered. “This one can stay.” She looked Rex up and down. “I don’t know about you.”
Rex blinked in bafflement. Who was this tiny firecracker?
“Did you get the job done?” Din redirected Rex’s attention.
“Better,” Rex confirmed. “We got a meet with the beskar dealers.”
Peli whistled. “They’re dangerous folk. You be careful. I’m not sure I can sell this flying rat trap if you die.”
“I’m coming with you,” Din said.
Rex startled. “I’m pretty sure the whole point of this was that if the beskar dealers see you they’ll shoot you on sight.”
“They won’t see me,” Din said with a dark edge to his raspy voice.
Rex and Cody went to the meeting spot. The sand gave way to rock and fell away in a crevice. The bottom provided shade from the heat. Rex and Cody stood at the top and stared down into the twisting caverns carved by water long since dried up. Rex and Cody exchanged glances. The sun glinted off Cody’s goggles.
“Good place for an ambush,” Rex said.
“Yeah, for us or them?” Cody groused.
“Let’s say us, since they don’t know Din’s up there watching on the ridge.” Rex nodded to the outcropping Din had claimed as his sharpshooter’s nest.
“Fine,” Cody checked his blaster on his belt. “You want to make a bet? Twenty credits says I get more shots off than you.”
Rex snorted. “Fifty credits and you’re on.”
“Done,” Cody beamed. “Let’s go.”
For fifty credits this mission might just be worth it. Rex followed Cody down the steep trail into the fissure in the rock. Cool air washed over Rex’s face as soon as they left the sun behind. Rex breathed deep. Rex kicked up small pebbles as he descended. The canyon walls took the sound and echoed it back like a gunshot.
At the bottom of the canyon Cody and Rex turned a corner and stopped. Three beskar dealers gathered in a tight knot around a cluster of boulders. Tia stepped forward. The rings in her lip flashed when she smiled. Rex suddenly wondered if any of the silver in Tia’s face was beskar. A shiver ran down his spine.
“Meet my friends,” Tia gestured behind her. “Franz, Manny, and Klew represent their organization.”
Franz, a skinny man in a long black coat nodded to Rex and Cody at his name. The other two stood still as statues, leaving Rex to guess if the guy built like a tank was Manny, or if the Weequay crouching beside him was Klew.
“You’re the guys asking questions,” Franz said.
“We’re curious people,” Rex answered just to be a kriffer.
“What do you want to know about our operation?” Franz asked. His hand strayed close to his pocket. Rex had no doubt he held a blaster there. Rex wanted to get out of here without shooting anybody, if he could help it.
“We want to buy your stock,” Rex said. “All of it.”
The Weequay maybe named Klew wheezed a laugh. “That would cost a fortune.”
“No,” Rex said. “We’ll be paying at a discount price.”
Franz frowned. “And why’s that?”
“Because otherwise,” Rex explained. “We’re going to torch your operation to the ground, take your beskar, and your lives, and you won’t get a single credit.”
Tia scowled. “That wasn’t the deal.”
“Things change,” Cody spoke up. “We’re giving you a choice to live and make a little cash. I advise you take it.”
“Kark you,” Manny the brick wall of a man spat.
Cody shrugged. “Your choice.” He raised his hands over his head.
That was the signal. A blaster bolt ripped through the air from Din’s sharpshooter nest. It scorched the ground between the Weequay and Franz. They both leaped back.
“It’s a trap!” Franz yelled.
No kidding. Rex dove behind a rock just in time. Cody did the same across the narrow canyon. Franz freed his blaster from his pocket and started shooting. Blaster fire whizzed over Rex’s head. Thankfully, Franz had the aim of a Stormtrooper. The Weequay, on the other hand, managed to spark the rock next to Rex’s shoulder. He hunched down.
A bellow sounded and Rex heard Manny the mountain of a person crash to the ground.
Another blaster bolt sizzled the sand between Rex’s feet. Wait a minute. The angle of that last shot didn’t line up. It almost seemed like it came from directly above. Rex looked up.
The glint of a scope winked at Rex. He threw himself across the crevice to Cody’s hiding place.
Rex crashed against Cody’s shoulder. “We’ve got a problem,” Rex shouted in his ear.
“I’ve got Franz,” Cody answered. “You’re going to owe me fifty credits.”
“There’s another sniper,” Rex yelled. “He’s gunning for us.”
A bolt slammed against the rock inches from Cody’s face to prove Rex’s point.
“Kark!” Cody shouted. “We gotta move.”
Rex concurred, but they had a problem. They were pinned between the sniper above and the three dealers in front of them.
“I can get Franz,” Cody repeated.
“Do it,” Rex ordered. “I got the Weequay.”
In synchrony Rex and Cody stretched out from their rock and took their shots. Franz dropped. The Weequay ducked Rex’s shot, but one of Din’s bolts finally got him. He slumped into the sand.
That only left Tia. Rex leaned out from his spot to try to get a bead on her. He didn’t see her. Rex eased himself further out from behind the rock. Still no sign of her many piercings. Maybe she’d run.
Speaking of. “Let’s see if we can get out of here without that sniper taking our heads off,” Rex suggested.
Cody nodded. “On three?”
“Three.” Rex and Cody dashed for the trail leading up. Blaster fire peppered at their heels, but the sniper had the wrong angle now. Cody crashed out into the sun first. He veered right, towards Din’s sharpshooter nest.
Rex looked over his shoulder as he ran, trying to get a look at the sniper. He didn’t see anything but rock and sand.
Rex almost reached the ridge. Cody vanished over the rock in front of him.
Something slammed right into Rex’s side. He tripped and went down. Rex spit out a mouthful of sand. The grit stuck to his teeth. Just once, Rex wanted to be able to visit Tatooine without having to taste it.
Rex rolled over to see what had tripped him. Tia scrambled to her feet above him. She brandished a knife. Rex reached for the blaster he’d holstered. Tia’s boot came down on his wrist. Rex swallowed a scream. Tia kicked Rex’s blaster away. She glared down at him, the knife glittering the same silver as the metal in her face.
“You’ve ruined everything,” Tia snarled.
Rex wanted to roll his eyes. The worst part of all of this was still the mouthful of sand. “What are you going to do, kid? Make up your mind.”
Tia lifted her knife.
“No hard feelings,” Tia said. “It’s just business.”
Rex groaned. He was going to die listening to the most cliched last words ever. Just go ahead and stab him, his day couldn’t get any lousier.
A blaster bolt whizzed over Rex’s head and slammed into Tia’s chest. Her eyes widened. She dropped like a wet sack of bricks.
Rex looked up, expecting to see Cody. A figure in green armor sighted down a rifle at Rex. Rex’s instincts took over. He leaped over the ridge into Din’s hiding spot behind the rocks. It was very crowded.
Cody pulled his foot out from under Rex’s leg. Din reloaded his pulse rifle with quick, jerky movements. Another blaster bolt cracked over head.
“Who is that?” Cody shouted.
Honestly, Rex didn’t care. The kriffer was shooting at them. In Rex’s books, that was bad. He responded appropriately. That is, Rex popped his head over the rock and shot back with gusto.
Din lifted himself up beside Rex and sighted down the length of his scope. He suddenly froze.
Din’s gloved hand reached out and wrapped around Rex’s blaster. “Hold your fire.”
Rex shot him an incredulous look. “What are you doing?”
Din stood up.
Rex about had a heart attack. He grabbed Din’s belt and tried to yank him back behind cover. Din shoved his hands away.
A red bolt missed Din’s head by millimeters.
“Wait!” Din yelled. He cupped his hands around the front of his helmet where his mouth would be. “Fett! It’s me, Din!”
Fett? You’ve got to be kriffing me, Rex thought.
The blaster fire stopped. Din waved a hand at their shooter.
Rex risked poking his head up. Cody did the same.
The green armored sniper stood out of his crouch. Rex’s blood went cold even in the Tatooine heat. If you didn’t recognise that signature armor, it would either haunt you for the rest of your life or end your life in short order.
“Is that Boba kriffing Fett?” Cody exclaimed.
“You know him?” Din asked pleasantly.
Rex had to physically stop himself from jumping up to strangle Din. Really, it was Rex’s own fault. He had forgotten that Din Djarin had no context whatsoever for the galaxy he sailed through. He had no use for Jedi, Sith, wars and their Empires, or the figures who had built and toppled the stars. Din had not known Luke freaking Skywalker, or Darth Vader, or Yoda. Of course he had not a clue the impact Boba Fett had left on the galaxy.
And of course, Din the Deathwish Djarin had made friends with Boba the Unkillable Fett.
The two Mandalorians met in a clanking hug of crushing beskar.
“How is you ad’ika?” Fett’s voice growled even rougher than Din’s through his helmet.
“Still eating frogs,” Din answered.
“Then let him eat frogs, what can it hurt?” Fett asked. He clasped Din’s pauldron. “What are you doing back on Tatooine, Mand’alor?”
“I’m here to give you this.” Din unclipped the Darksaber from his belt and offered it to Fett.
Cody made a choked noise beside Rex.
Boba Fett met Din’s inscrutable visor with his own unreadable gaze. Fett reached up and removed his helmet.
Rex stifled a gasp. Fett’s skin layered with webs of scars. Holy Force, what had this man survived? It looked like he’d walked into Hell and walked back out the other side.
Fett apparently wanted his helmet off to pierce Din with his menacing glare. “I warned you what I’d do if you gave me that cursed thing,” Fett growled. His voice had a scratchier rasp without the helmet.
“You told me you’d toss me into a volcano with the Darksaber,” Din answered evenly.
“Right. You want to see the inside of a volcano today, Djarin?” Fett challenged.
“Not today,” Din retracted the Darksaber. “I haven’t said good-bye to Grogu. Maybe next week.”
“Good,” Fett tucked his helmet under his arm. “Now why are you really on Tatooine?”
“Same as you, it seems,” Din gestured to the cooling body of Tia in the sand. “Beskar thieves.”
Fett’s lip curled with distaste. “Beskar thieves are not welcome on Tatooine,” Fett rumbled. “I’m sending a message.”
Rex could have shriveled up and died. Did Tatooine just make people talk like bad movies? Was that what as happening?
Fett’s gaze finally landed on Rex and Cody. If he was surprised to see his own face looking back at him, he hid it well.
“You two need a better disguise,” Fett said. “Plenty of folks around here would shoot you for wearing Imperial armor.”
Cody lifted his goggles off his face. “It’s not Imperial. It’s mine.”
Fett shrugged his massive shoulders. “Nobody on Tatooine would ask questions. And nobody would look twice at a dead clone.”
Cody started to step forward, but Rex grabbed his arm. He squeezed Cody’s bicep. Rex would like to say as few words as possible to Boba Fett in order to raise their chances of walking away alive.
“Are we good?” Fett growled.
Kark, Rex needed a drink.
“Not exactly,” Din answered. “You killed my contact, Fett.”
“I’m not saying sorry for it,” Fett growled.
“I’m not asking you to,” Din explained. “But when you find the next link in the chain for these beskar thieves, call me.”
“I have your comm info,” Fett agreed.
Evidently, that ended their escapade in the wastelands. Din slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder. Rex couldn’t wait to get off this dustbowl planet. He restrained himself from hopping on one foot in anticipation.
Din and Fett exchanged a farewell. Din said something in Mando’a too fast for Rex to catch. Fett answered with a sharper, clipped accent. The two lifted their hands and parted. Fett hiked off and vanished amid the sand dunes. Rex hoped Fett buried himself in the sands of the Dune Sea and never raised his crazy head again.
Din pointed himself towards the dipping suns and Mos Eisley. Rex and Cody trudged through the sand a pace behind him. The adrenaline finally caught up with Rex. His eyelids felt raw. He could use three drinks and a bath. The sand was never going to come out of his boots.
Cody bumped his shoulder against Rex’s. “I can’t believe we met Boba karking Fett,” Cody said.
“I can’t believe you still owe me fifty credits for losing our bet.”
“You’re kriffing me,” Cody gawked. “I got twice as many shots as you.”
“You wish!”
Din interrupted. “If this is about who shot more people, I beat both of you.”
Rex and Cody abandoned their bickering to heap ridicule on Din.