Chapter 9: Shiboka
Beneath the unending storm, the Wanderer and Mari walked side by side as rain fell harshly onto their heads. Their speeder had given out about a quarter mile away from the city, so the two of them had no choice but to walk the rest of the way.
Both girls spoke not a single word, the Wanderer doing so because she simply didn't want to, and Mari doing so due to not wanting to get on her bad side yet again. Despite only knowing her for less than a day, Mari was very curious about the Wanderer.
She wanted to know about her time as a Jedi and her life before she became a wanderer. She was curious to know how she ended up so cold and distant. However, she couldn't come up with a way to ask her without her getting upset again.
As they stepped down the muddy path approaching the city, the Wanderer glanced over to see Mari shivering due to her kimono and long, silver hair being drenched in the storm's chilling rain. The Wanderer then removed her own kimono and handed it to Mari. "Here, take it." she told her, though Mari was reluctant to do so.
"Oh, no, that's okay!" she said through shuddering teeth, prompting the Wanderer to look at her with an unimpressed eye. "I ain't asking. Take it before I change my mind."
Seeing she had no real choice in the matter, Mari accepted the kimono, wearing it like a blanket over her own as the two continued to walk toward the city whose walls and buildings were of stone.
As the Wanderer led the way, Mari looked at her scar-covered back, noticing her incredibly toned back muscles that weren't shivering in the slightest. Unbeknownst to the Wanderer, Mari was blushing as she watched her walk, thinking about some not-so-pure thoughts.
"Thanks, by the way." Mari said, feeling herself beginning to warm up thanks to the Wanderer's kimono that still held onto her body heat. The gesture, though coming from the kindness within the Wanderer, felt almost like a romantic gesture to Mari. She knew it was just her being nice and likely feeling bad for her after seeing her shivering, still, feeling her body heat wrapped around her felt oddly intimate.
"Don't mention it. I'm used to the cold." The Wanderer continued to stroll confidently as she spoke. Due to her Jedi training, the cold meant almost nothing to her. "When I was a Jedi, I learned how to control my body temperature using the Force. A snowstorm is one thing, but a bit of rain won't do me no harm."
"You train a lot still, don't you?" Mari asked, her eyes still glued to the Wanderer's muscular back. The Wanderer turned just her neck, looking back at Mari with her single eye. "Maybe. What? You like what you see?" The Wanderer teased, noticing where Mari's eyes were looking.
"Yes." Mari said plainly. "They're quite tantalizing. Can I feel them?"
Not expecting such an answer, the Wanderer could feel her face warming up, though she did not blush. "Wh-" the Wanderer stammered. "Quiet." she told her, turning back around to face the direction she was walking.
Mari mischievously skipped forward with her hands behind her back and peeked at the Wanderer's face. There was a slight smile on her face as she used her straw hat to unsuccessfully hide it from Mari. "Wow, you can smile?" she told her, turning her body so that she could walk backward in front of the Wanderer.
"Shut it." the Wanderer said, fixing her face and removing her smile once she realized it was there.
"You should smile more, it's cute." Mari told her, prompting the Wanderer to turn her head away from her in embarrassment. "I ain't cute. Save all the sweet talk for your husband." the Wanderer muttered, though Mari's teasing wouldn't end there.
"Future husband, you mean? I can sweet talk to whoever I want as of now. Am I making you nervous, Ms. Wanderer?" Mari spoke in a teasing tone with a smile on her face, compelling the Wanderer to shake her head. "No, more like annoyed."
"Then why has your face gone crimson, hm?" Mari lied, getting close to the Wanderer's face as if she could actually see a difference.
"Because it's cold, obviously." the Wanderer answered, coming up with an excuse for her nonexistent blush since she couldn't see her own face.
"What happened to being able to regulate your own body temperature?" Mari still spoke in a whimsical, teasing voice as she walked backward playfully.
"What's it gonna take for you to shut it?" the Wanderer asked.
"I don't know. Make me." Mari was getting ahead of herself, challenging the Wanderer who then looked at her with a cold, blank eye. "I'm starting to feel cold. I might be needing my kimono back."
Mari tensed up. "Kidding! I'll shut up." she said before turning around and walking normally beside the Wanderer, not saying another word as they continued toward the city.
After just a few minutes of trekking through the rain, the two found themselves entering the stone city with empty streets. However, the Wanderer frowned upon seeing DP-6 guard droids, droids with human-like proportions and grey bodies, watching them from afar. 'The hell are Sith droids doing here?' the Wanderer asked herself in her own head, holding out her arm to block Mari from getting any closer.
"Stay back a little. There's somethin' off about this place." she told her, getting a head nod in response. Meanwhile, a droid, with its weapon down, started to approach the two girls before speaking to them. Upon seeing it approach, the Wanderer tilted her head down to hide her face under her hat. If those were droids that belonged to the Sith Empire, she couldn't afford to have her face recognized just yet.
"Welcome to Shiboka, what business do you have here?" the droid asked, prompting the Wanderer to look back at Mari before looking back at the droid and giving him an answer. "We need repairs on our speeder. An X-34. Back engine blew out, it's about a quarter mile east of here."
The droid stared blankly at them through its cold metal eyes before giving them a response. "Our mechanics may be able to help you. That will cost you ten thousand credits."
"Ten thousand? I could buy a speeder with that!" the Wanderer scolded the droid, though, in her own mind, this already confirmed her theory. 'So the Sith are pulling the strings around this place.' She knew that the ridiculous inflation had to be due to Sith being involved in some way, she just didn't know in what way just yet. The Wanderer gripped the hilt of her blade as she thought about her past once more. Her own village was taken over by Sith just like this one was. She remembered seeing the droids roaming the streets, she remembered people being murdered in cold blood for not following orders.
She remembered the day her village was destroyed by them.
"But if I must, fine." the Wanderer told him, releasing her grip from her blade. "Can your mechanics tow it here, the thing won't start." She wanted to strike the droid down then and there and get to the bottom of what was happening, but Mari would be too much of a liability. She knew she needed to play it smart.
"Yes, of course, ma'am. We'll get right on it! Please, lead the way." the droid told her, before the Wanderer and Mari did just that, leading the droid to the location of the landspeeder. Just after they'd reached it, a landspeeder with towing equipment showed up and pulled the X-34 back to the city.
As the Wanderer and Mari followed the droids through the town, they noticed that the entire city wasn't lively in the slightest. Though it was raining, one would expect the occasional civilian or two to be out and about, but the streets were completely empty. Occasionally, they could see inside many of the stone buildings such as shops, cantinas, and homes, but they were all completely empty.
Eventually, the mechanic droids led them to the repair shop, and as they approached, the Wanderer could see where all of the civilians were. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked onward at the hundreds of civilians out in the mining fields, people of all ages and genders digging as droids pointed their weapons at them.
'That's right...' the Wanderer thought to herself, remembering why this city was so important. 'There's a Chromium mine here. The Sith Empire must want to have it all for themselves...' As the Wanderer looked on, Mari could see the tense look on her face and knew that they found themselves in a situation that was far from good.
Clenching her fist, the Wanderer continued watching the people of Shiboka being forced into slave labor in their own hometown. If there was one thing about the Wanderer, it was that she wouldn't allow the defenseless to be trampled on, not after being in that position herself.
She knew she could have paid the ten thousand credits and gone on with her life, but she couldn't allow herself to not do anything when people were being taken advantage of.
'I ain't letting that happen.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TheWanderingWriter
TheWanderingWriter The Wanderer is not a goody-goody, she is simply anti-slavery. I can sense some people will be upset that she wants to help people.
Give stones.
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