Ask The Ranger and Revenge

[Song Wren]

Jania. The very name cut her to the bone. Song had always suspected the Ranger was once married, once in love, but she hadn’t known the truth. She hadn’t known the tragedy of her death, the injustice. She hadn’t known he’d been months away from having a family, only for them to be mercilessly ripped out of his hands. She hadn’t known just how much pain Kanan had endured.

Now she did, and now she felt nothing more but aching remorse.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, because Song didn’t know what more she could say. The loss of her brother had been devastating, but for Kanan to lose his wife and unborn child? The galaxy truly was an unforgiving monster, bleeding the lives of men and women like them until they became little more than rot and empty husks of their former selves.

“We’re just a couple of damaged goods, aren’t we?”

She turned to him again. Her visor glinted in the moonlight, the stars. White tulips and patches of lavender swayed as a soft breeze ran over the clearing of the forest. It was beautiful, more than she could have imagined. Song could have stayed in that moment forever, seated at Kanan’s side, waiting until the morning sun would peek between the trees.

She reached for his hand, resting her head against his shoulders.

She lifted her helmet and showed him the scared young woman hiding underneath, exposing her delicately braided hair, revealing the truth of her identity.

She cupped his face into her hands and kissed him.

Song did none of those things.

Instead she looked away from him, unable to string together the right words to say. Although they were both broken, they were still the Ranger and the Mandalorian. Still on opposite sides of the same coin. Song wanted desperately for him to join her on the trip to Chandrila, to keep her anchored to the ground when she confronted Amita Ghafa, but what then?

She staggered back to her full height. Struggling to look him in the eye, she said, “I’m going alone, Kanan, and not because I’m afraid you might stop me. You’re a Sector Ranger. If you’re part of this, if you help me—whether or not Amita lives or dies—you will lose everything. And I’m not letting that happen.”

“This is my burden to bear.”

Without another thought, without thinking, Song yanked out her blaster and fired two stun bolts into his chest. She couldn’t risk him following her back to the ship or posing another fight. She wouldn’t let him risk losing his job, his life, in service of her own terrible need for revenge. Most of all, she didn’t want to risk him changing her mind.

I’m sorry.

@llamallove

 

[Kanan Marek]

“I suppose we are,” Kanan replied, directing his gaze toward the heavens above, littered with stars. It was a beautiful night out, and the cool breeze against his skin was refreshing.

Before Kanan could voice his objections to River’s next statement, River had drawn his blaster and fired two stun bolts into his chest. He would have scrambled for the blaster, but the attack had taken him by surprise. His thoughts had been occupied.

The last thing he saw before slipping into unconsciousness was the back of the Mandalorian’s armor, crossing the clearing of grass and disappearing into the forest. His heart sank at the sight.

It wasn’t until the early morning hours that Kanan regained consciousness, still sore but with a renewed energy in his muscles. Opening his eyes, he blinked slowly, looking around the clearing. Sunlight was beginning to shine through the trees, and birds could be heard chirping. There was no sign of River.

Kanan shot to his feet and tore through the forest, only one thing on his mind: Chandrila.

@Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

Song shifted uncomfortably in the cockpit of her ship, restless, her eyes sunken as they stared out into the vast oblivion of space. Serenno shrank behind her, turning into little more than a pebble in a sea of stars. Guilt weighed heavy on her shoulders.

She’d shot Kanan. Left him to rot in a random forest until dawn. She’d done the unimaginable by betraying him, his trust, and her own feelings.

So badly did she want him to come.

How painful it’d been to pull the trigger.

Song wouldn’t let him risk his life and career helping her on this path to revenge. If she killed Amita and there was even the slightest implication of his involvement, he’d be investigated. He’d at least be stripped of his rank, his badge, and at worst, arrested and tossed into a Coruscant prison. No, in fact, he might be killed. Not by his superiors, but by Amita.

There was no guarantee Song would be successful in her confrontation with the Ranger. The woman had managed to defeat River. This would be no ordinary bounty hunt.

But Song was trained for this. She’d been training since the day she could hold a weapon, and even harder since her brother’s corpse was left at her doorstep. Whatever would be waiting for her on Chandrila, if it was an army of Republic soldiers or a contingent of Jedi Knights or the whole goddamn Sector Rangers, then she’d fight tooth and nail to achieve her goal.

Her fingers glided over the dashboard, snapping dials and buttons, before landing on a single polished lever. She let out a ragged breath, releasing the ache in her chest, and pulled.

Then Song was plunging into the blue light of hyperspace.

End Thread.​