Chapter Text
Trilla Suduri, formerly known as the Second Sister, was not supposed to be on Coruscant.
To be fair, none of them were, except maybe the prisoner they’d transported to Senator Sejan down below. But the Empire didn’t have to know that. As far as they were concerned, Trilla and her crew were absolutely the bounty hunters they were pretending to be. At least for the next…She checked her watch. Five minutes.
As much as she still didn’t like him, she had to admit that Saw Gerrera had done his job well in setting up this mission. Complete undercover identities, airtight window between dropoff, free credits for turning in a Jedi, and they got to show the Empire what-for and collect crucial data for Saw’s team.
And there was, of course, the added bonus of getting to take Cal Kestis prisoner again.
That part of the mission had been quite fun. She’d gotten to drag him around the docks, punch him in the stomach, and even call him ‘Jedi scum’ a few times. It was very therapeutic. Especially considering how many times he had kicked her ass in training recently.
She watched through her binocs as an undercover Bode Akuna delivered Cal and his lightsaber to Senator Sejan, the security droid tossing him at the senator’s feet. She couldn’t hear the conversation from here, but she could see as Bode handed the senator Cal’s lightsaber and both he and the droid walked away. Senator Sejan began to pace, smug as all hell in his weird-ass Coruscant robes (the fashion here was so gauche). Then he leaned down next to Cal. A flash of blue indicated he’d turned on the lightsaber, holding it threateningly at the Jedi’s throat.
Beside Trilla, Merrin stiffened. “If that senator gets any closer, I swear…”
“Easy, Nightsister,” came Bode’s voice over the comm. “Have some faith in your boyfriend.”
“It’s not Cal I do not trust.”
“The Senator’s all talk,” Gabs said in Trilla’s ear. “He couldn’t get a thing out of Cal if he tried.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Trilla muttered. “That man loves to talk.”
“Did I or did I not say ‘no comms’?” Bravo demanded. “You all know the plan. Clear the line.”
The senator began to pace in front of Cal, probably waxing poetic about how the Jedi were scum or whatever. Behind him, on the yacht, Trilla caught a glimpse of a little red and white droid placing something on the ship’s surface.
She smiled. “BD’s in position.”
Cal said something else, something that seemed to tick off the senator further. He pointed the lightsaber at Cal’s face, Merrin’s eyes began to glow with green light, and Trilla started to worry she might blow this whole operation when the lightsaber turned off.
As the senator, very confused, began to hit the lightsaber to try and troubleshoot it, Cal got to his feet, his energy shifting from scared, defiant prisoner to confident Jedi. BD-1 freed Cal’s hands and he immediately summoned his lightsaber to his hand, smirking as the senator ran up into his yacht and began to send hordes of troopers after him. Just as planned.
Trilla watched as Bode flew in to their rendezvous spot. “Nice of you to join us, Jetpack.”
“Hey, not all of us can sit and watch from the sidelines,” he shot back, and Trilla could imagine him grinning under his helmet. “How’s he doin’ out there?”
“Oh, y’know. Kicking ass with his usual dramatic flair.” Trilla saw Cal kick a trooper in the face and slam his lightsaber into their chest before shoving two more off the side of the dock.
“Is the rest of the team in position?” Merrin asked.
“Locked, loaded, and ready to break into a senator’s secure yacht.” He gestured to the dock. “Soon as Cal finishes showing off.”
“Oh, trust me, he’s never finished showing off,” Trilla assured him.
Trilla’s droid, V-14, chittered out a sardonic laugh from her shoulder. “You’re one to talk,
Little-Miss-hung-on-the-outside-of-the-Mantis-to-catch-Cal-that-one-time.”
“You did what?” Bode demanded.
“Nothing. She’s got a loose spark plug.”
“I don’t even have spark plugs, you dick.”
Bode blinked. “Is it normal for your droid to be so vulgar?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Trilla rolled her eyes. “She’s also a compulsive liar.”
Merrin leaned over to Bode. “The droid is not lying.”
“Merrin, I swear to the fucking Force—”
Bode stepped between them, kneeling on the edge of the rooftop. “Oookay, let’s maybe focus for a bit, guys.”
They went quiet, though Trilla did throw Merrin a quick middle finger for good measure.
Trilla returned to watching Cal. Piles of stormtrooper bodies littered the dock around him, as well as little empty stim vials from BD-1’s storage. Cal had switched to his double-bladed stance, taking on two or three enemies at a time without even breaking a sweat. Trilla couldn’t help but smile. She remembered the days when he struggled against one. Ah, how the man had grown.
Finally, the last trooper died under Cal’s blade, and the senator seemed to realize that escape was his only option. Too bad for him that BD-1 got to his ship before he did. Cal crossed his arms as the EMP exploded outward, powering down the yacht and sending it careening back toward the dock. A lot faster than expected.
Almost panicking, Cal began to run in the opposite direction, holding onto BD, as the yacht smashed into the docks, sending him sliding off the quickly tilting surface. In any other situation, Trilla might’ve worried for Cal’s safety.
But not when they had a teleporting Nightsister with them.
Merrin reappeared with a panting Cal and a slightly frazzled BD-1, her arm wrapped around his shoulders.
Cal blinked, seeming to realize he was not, in fact, falling to his death. “Oh. Thanks, Mer.”
“You know, revealing that we’re with Cal this early was not part of the plan,” Bode said with a slight glance at Merrin.
“Neither was the yacht almost killing him.”
Bode shrugged good-naturedly. “Fair enough. You alright there, Kestis?”
“All good.” Cal stretched out his arms, glancing back at the yacht, which had lodged itself between some construction equipment a few hundred yards below. “The team ready?”
Trilla slid off her helmet. “As we can be.”
“Oh, we’re going loud now.” Bode took his off too, revealing a slightly-sweaty-looking human with mulleted black hair and an easygoing grin. “Love it when we discuss plans as a team.”
“You’re new,” Merrin said dryly, magicking her helmet into non-existence. “Do not expect the same level of input as everyone else, Jetpack.”
“Cool, so that nickname’s sticking now. Great.”
“Are you guys coming or are we just waiting around for backup to arrive?” Gabs demanded over the comm, much to Bravo’s chagrin.
Trilla put her finger to her ear. “Sorry, we have to wait for the new guy to stop having insecurity issues.”
“You know, you two really are starting to be a pain in my ass,” Bode said to Trilla and Merrin.
“Good,” they said in unison before sharing a wicked grin. Ah, Trilla had missed insulting other team members alongside Merrin.
Cal chuckled. “I’m just glad it’s not me this time.”
“It can be,” Merrin warned, sliding a hand across his shoulder in a way that was equal parts sensual and threatening.
Cal failed to go red. “BD, can you map us?”
The droid beeped out a sure can! and pulled up his holomap. As he showed them the path to the yacht, Trilla grabbed her lightsaber from inside her boot and hooked it to her belt. Just in case.
“Alright, we got the path.” Cal nodded. “Let’s head out. Merrin, you mind scouting ahead.”
“Gladly,” she said, shooting a half-joking glare at Trilla and Bode before vanishing in a wreath of green smoke.
“I feel like I’m never gonna get used to her doing that,” Bode remarked, following as Cal set out, hopping across rooftops.
Trilla scoffed. “Wait until she teleports you with her.”
Bode shot across a gap with his jetpack. “So what’s your deal, Suduri? I get Cal, he’s got that whole ‘lone-Jedi-showing-the-Empire-what’s-what’ deal, and Merrin’s got that thing with her sisters, but what about you?”
“What, Saw didn’t brief you on my history on the way over?” She asked dryly.
He shook his head.
Trilla sighed. It never really got any easier to tell people about her past. “Well…I used to be an Inquisitor.”
Bode stiffened, something like fear running across his eyes. “Like…the Imperial kind?”
She nodded. “I met Cal and Merrin while hunting them and the rest of the Mantis crew. Then they saved my life from Vader a few times, showed me the light, etcetera, etcetera, and here we are.” She absentmindedly ran her fingers along V-14’s back. “I’m not big into Saw Gerrera or his crew, but, well, I do like giving the Empire hell for what they did to me.”
“Torture?” He guessed.
“Torture.”
“What was your designation?”
Trilla swallowed, an image of her in black and red flashing across her vision. “Second Sister.”
“You interact much with the other branches of the Empire?”
Weird question. But Trilla shrugged. “Not really. Most of our missions were Inquisitorious-specific. We even had our own troopers. Why do you ask?”
Bode seemed to relax a bit. “Oh, just curious. Not every day you meet a former Imperial working for Saw of all people.”
“Oh, believe me, he wasn’t too fond of Trilla at first either,” Cal said.
“If you call him capturing me and calling the damn Inquisitorious on me ‘not being fond of me’, then yes.”
Bode smiled. “I’m surprised he didn’t just try to kill you outright.”
“As if he could.” Trilla spun her lightsaber hilt in her hand and gracefully leapt over a gap in the rooftops.
“Now who’s being a show-off?” Bode teased.
“Still Cal.”
He put his hands by his shoulders. “What the hell did I do?”
Bode and Trilla shared a conspiratorial look and laughed.
Cal shook his head. “You know, I’m starting to remember why I didn’t recruit you for missions before, Trilla. You’re still a bully.”
“Old Inquisitor habits die hard?”
He rolled his eyes. “I think maybe you’re just an asshole.”
“That too.”
A flash of green light, and Merrin appeared on a chimney above them, rolling her eyes. “You three are going to set off every alarm on this level if you do not hush and hurry up.”
“It’s mostly Trilla,” Cal mumbled.
“Also, there are ten troopers ahead.” And then she vanished again.
Bode pulled his blasters out of his holsters with a grin. “You ready for a fight, Inquisitor?”
Trilla rolled her eyes igniting her lightsaber, orange light bathing the dark rooftops. “Are you?”
Then four of them sprang into action, practically giving half the troopers heart attacks as they attacked from above. Trilla almost laughed at their shock and confusion. She’d probably be stunned too if two Jedi, a jetpack-wearing sharpshooter, and a Nightsister ambushed her on patrol.
And as she kicked the troopers’ asses, she had to admit that despite all the playful fighting and the plans that were already not going to plan, she’d quite missed fighting by Cal and Merrin’s side.