The Tavern Keeper
Okay, I did it. @onereyofstarlight was a grinning accomplice and I blame her encouragement. I hope she enjoys reading this mess in the morning :D
Many thanks to @greywake for the read through when I grabbed her by her collar and shoved this in front of her. She even listened to my babbling :D
Its AU, its two universes that were never meant to exist anywhere beside each other, slammed together and remodelled into one. Shall it continue? Let me know, cos this one is actually quite a challenge to write because I lack a lot of knowledge of the other universe.
I hope you enjoy it, regardless.
Warnings: canon mention and description of violence, but scarce on detail.
-o-o-o-
It was a strikingly cold one for these parts. Where there was usually desert wind on sand, but the sand was now coated in a fine layer of impossible ice. A bounty for the moisture farmers, but a curse for those used to the warmer clime.
G wiped down the bar.
He had an equally unhappy crowd tonight. A few of those farmers grumbling about those up-wind sucking the sky dry, a handful of the usual homeless blessing the roof above their head as long as he kept the bar open.
And yes, he had the intent of sheltering them over night. Only a heartless man would chuck them out into that weather.
But it was the groups surrounding a young and foolish blue mythrol who had obviously floundered well out of his depth. The ruffians hounding him were far too familiar and G was considering doing something about them.
But right now? By himself? He may not be a coward, but he wasn’t stupid. With the fall of the Hutts, protection was not guaranteed, and honestly, what life he had was built on choosing his battles.
Perhaps Brains could intercede. He must remember to speak to him later. Financial transactions weren’t really his thing, but science could be applied and frankly G was sick of rounding up these dimwits who kept messing with his business.
The leader of the group was suggesting farming the poor mythrol at which point G decided a line had been crossed, when the door spiralled open, letting that harsh wind in to rattle the furnishings.
G knew what he would see before he saw. His hackles shot up and crawled the length of his spine.
A figure stood framed by the circular portal.
Helmeted. Armoured.
Mandalorian.
G put the glass he had been drying down on the counter as the man strode in. His very stance spoke of experience and readiness.
The ruffians torturing the mythrol picked up on the change in the air, obviously attracted by the man’s potential. The blue man was shoved aside and left to stumble as they hurried over to seek new prey.
Further proof of their foolishness.
And definitely a danger to G’s establishment.
The Mandalorian approached the bar, beskar shining in the low light, revealing some kind of bird etched into his right pauldron. His posture was sure, but quiet.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to order.
The gang leader challenged the man in Huttese.
He was ignored.
G couldn’t help but agree.
Yet, he had an establishment to protect. “Hey, now, your drink is on me.” He shoved a fresh one in front of the gang leader.
Definitely going to do something about him.
The helmet of the Mandalorian held no expression, of course, but something crawled over G’s spine again.
The potential in the air sung with inevitability.
And sure enough, the leader took that one step too many and the room exploded.
G took a step back as the Mandalorian took his opponents out.
Smooth and clean, with the exception of the last one who made a foolish run for it out the door.
The Mandalorian shot the controls and the gang member got stuck in the door as it spiralled shut, leaving a half of him on either side.
Someone was puking in the far corner.
G sighed. Now he had a whole pile of cleaning, and fast talking with the authorities ahead of him.
He was sorry for their young lives, yes, but they were stupid lives.
The Mandalorian said nothing before turning towards the mythrol, who was now free of the harassment and was taking the passing of his aggressors with little concern.
G arched an eyebrow as the Mandalorian dropped a bounty puck in front of the blue youth.
Ah, kriff.
The hologram that appeared had G’s heart sinking into the floor.
Too bad.
“I can bring you in warm.” The bounty hunter reached for his blaster, ever so calmly. “Or I can bring you in cold.”
-o-o-o-
The Mandalorian left as quietly as he had entered, dragging his catch behind him. Apparently the mythrol preferred warm travelling.
Best of luck in this weather.
Turning back to his bar he found it mostly empty. Even the homeless were scattering out the door. Freezing in the night was obviously preferable to sharing a room with a dead body.
G sighed and threw down his towel.
Half a man at least.
Explaining this was not something he was looking forward to.
A groan from the floor in front of the bar had G moving.
Hurrying around and stepping over the corpse, he grabbed the two remaining gang members, broken limbs, bloodied noses and all and hauled them out into the night before they could get their feet under them.
Years of service had honed his muscle mass and the struggling men were nothing. He may not have the speed and reflexes of the Mandalorian, but he still had his own set of skills to offer.
And offer he had.
For a long time.
But the past was the past and there was no use mulling over it when he had work to do.
His own moral code saw the two men on their own feet, mobile and out of his establishment as smartly as possible. If he pointed them in the direction of the local sheriff, so be it. With a bit of luck they would have a lawful encounter. If not, he and Brains would make sure they did the following day.
Dragging half a man out of his tavern didn’t require anywhere as much muscle. He piled the bits outside his door and planned to report it all the following morning.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first death on his property.
Not that the law really cared out here.
Hence the need to maintain muscle.
He closed up the bar, cleaned the blood off the floor and secured the building. Only then did he let his shoulders relax.
There had been something about that Mandalorian. Something odd, almost familiar?
He shuddered and exited through a door, down a stair into a basement he had shielded from detection himself. The real reason for the building’s existence.
His workshop lit up automatically as he approached and Brains hurried over.
“M-master G, I have completed the c-c-conversion.”
Kriff, the droid’s vocal processor was glitching again. He had thought he’d fixed it.
Brains was all he had of his family. Created by his father and left behind as much as G had been when the man vanished, two of his brothers with him.
His other two brothers had already been taken.
He pressed his lips together, forcing the pain back into its box.
The rebellion had been an obvious answer to many of his problems.
But all through it, he kept Brains. It had been Jay who coined the droid’s name and it had stuck.
Almost as a eulogy to a brother long lost.
He shook himself. “It worked?”
“M-m-ost certainly, Master G.”
He straightened and looked beyond the droid to the workhorse of the rebellion he kept stashed in his basement workshop.
Her number two gleamed in the overhead lights.
-o-o-o-
TBC?
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