Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
– Revelations 6:1-2 [NKJV]
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Nirem remembered too well how his fists still hurt, the skin of his knuckles torn open and bleeding, when he squared up against the Mandalorian Reiel Mal on that fateful day she had graced the Smoke and Haze with her presence.
He was minding his business like usual, drinking his fill of liquor and chatting up with the ladies, always on the lookout for potential clients who wished to have their problems solved the "mercenary" way. The small Mando woman came without fanfare – and not that she needed it, to be honest. Everyone in the pub recognized her armor and gear from the holos, the steadfast guard who tanked a sniper bolt aimed for the heart of Tinnel IV's newest Senator. The fact that she seemed to have just shrugged it off meant that her helmet was pure beskar, and while the scum watching the news saw the profit they would make should their lay their filthy hands on her buy'ce Nirem knew that they could only pry the damn thing off of her corpse.
The local news have been abuzz with that attempted assassination for a week, with the news reporters clamoring to get even the shortest of interviews from the new Senator and the Mando herself. No such luck for the vultures, however –both employer and employee were more devoted to their work each than to entertain the journalists buzzing around like flies on fresh carcass around the senate building. Nirem wouldn't have bothered too much about the news, but being around the planet for decades had afforded him of his very own network of informants in the underworld.
Like a bloodhound, the Mando was looking for him.
The rest, as the saying went, was history. Nirem beat Reiel up so she would stop recruiting him, Reiel beat Nirem up in an attempt to sway him to her cause. The Morellian would have won had the Mando only conceded, blood dripping from her helmet as Nirem hovered over her still struggling form, bleeding fists poised to pummel her head in. The kid – because she was, given the vast difference between their age – was stubborn as fuck, and that was a tenacity the Morellian mercenary could respect.
She wasn't even mad that he had technically defeated her, his own strength and experience trumping hers, but awfully impressed by his own skill and savagery. Reiel Mal had only laughed, wiped the blood off of the rim of her helmet, and laughed (with a measure of surprise) some more when Nirem commented on the fact that he wasn't even using the Force yet. It was clear that whoever told her about him did not mention his connection to the Living Force, and while Nirem expected for her to walk away since her people were known to distrust Forcies like him, the small Mando simply made a comment about him being the same with her employer on that one regard.
Reiel Mal was a good kid. Had a stubborn streak, was dangerously persistent, and terribly honest with her cause. For specifically seeking him out, recruiting him, for her job?
She was a good kid who knew how to hide that she also had some few screws loose.
Nirem would have said that it was kind of hot but something about her told him that she was already claimed. And it might have been decades already, but there was only Ada for him and no one else.
Mutual respect bloomed from that bout, and that was why Nirem accepted her offer and stayed. From being a mercenary the Morellian found himself as part of the Senator's personal security detail – and the assistant to the chief of security, no less!
If there was one thing he had to be clear about, however, it was that his loyalty lay with Reiel Mal and not entirely with her own employer. Granted, the good Senator Carrick could fire Nirem if he said that out loud, and with good reason, but hey. He wasn't the one who exchanged deadly blows with the mercenary.
...the Senator paid good creds, though, so that was a bonus.
"You're sure about this?" Nirem asked his employer and friend, brows rised as he gazed down at her. They were currently going over plans of broadening and strengthening their security force outside and within the senate building in one of the many conference rooms, a hologram of the whole perimeter alight on the sleek, wooden table.
The Morellian knew that she was, she always did when it came to her employer's safety. He just wanted to tease her, and maybe test if some screws were still as loose as they did when they first met.
"Of course," replied Reiel Mal, and Nirem could sense the smile in her tone. Feral, and a tad ambitious – but not directed mostly for her own benefit.
"Eyes and ears on the whole planet?" muttered the mercenary with a hint of disbelief in his voice. "Didn't peg you to be the ambitious type, mon amie."
Maker, was this kid ever selfish? Must she do things for the sake of someone else?
"You have your own networks still, Nirem, and I can't thank you enough for lending them to me." Reiel Mal pressed her hands on the table and leaned towards him, the T of her visor as inpassive as ever. He could feel her determination through the Force, however, and he had an inkling that she wasn't even trying to conceal it. Mandos tended to withdraw to themselves – in all sense of the word – when Force-users were around. Maybe his friend was only doing this because she trusted him? "But we need to expand that."
Nirem took a deep breath, shedding his hat and running a hand to his braid. Settling down heavily on a chair, the Morellian pulled a cigarette from his pack and held it between his teeth. He didn't light it just yet – he could still wrap his head around Reiel Mal's desire to push this little pet project of hers forward. It was doable, sure, but...
"...it's not going to be easy," concluded the Morellian bluntly, gazing pointedly at the Mando woman across him. He had been in this planet for Maker knew how long. "It'll be difficult to earn and secure the loyalty of the scum and criminals of this planet, chère. That's why I'm asking you right here, right now, if you're serious. Some won't have it with their loyalty being bought like some sort of commodity, let alone for someone to attempt to earn it. Are you prepared to earn that loyalty like you did mine?"
As far as Nirem was concerned, most Mandos didn't just show their face to anyone. The only reason he – and everyone else, for that matter – had been free to gaze upon Ada's beauty was that she had long shed the Creed of her people at the death of her small clan. Needless to say, bottle green eye grew impossibly wide as Reiel Mal lifted her gloved hands up to grab the sides of her helmet and, in one swift movement, shed it without the smallest degree of doubt or shame.
The face underneath the buy'ce was not something he expected. Reiel Mal was a beauty, and the resolute grin on her face prompted the same kind on Nirem's face.
Now there's those loose screws right there, all right!
"Très bien!" exclaimed the Morellian as he rose from his seat, reaching out a hand to clasp Reiel Mal's extended one. "You continue to impress this old mercenary, petit amie. I'm looking forward with helping you on this, if only to watch those suckers get beaten by you to a bloody pulp!"
He still asked her if she broke her Creed in some way after their discussion. Nirem was glad that she didn't, but the telltale blush on her face spoke of something interesting as her thoughts – what little he caught through the Force – drifted to a certain individual the Morellian felt they both knew. Was it her lover, perhaps? Had she shown them her face? And who else aside from her clan had seen it, he wondered?
It was when he was nearly stabbed by one of the criminals they approached days later, in their bid to add the group to Reiel Mal's eyes and ears on Tinnel IV, when he discovered why it had been easy for her to show a mercenary like him her face. For her to casually shed the anonimity her helmet and armor provided her.
Reiel Mal was an odd kid, and Nirem knew that he would walk through hell and back for a loyal person like her.
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