Chapter 11

What was worse? Traveling with Ryoo, or traveling with her mother, Sola?

Han wouldn't know which was the worst choice because he was traveling with both of them. At the royal palace, a security guard had told them that he had seen two muddy children muttering about Tatooine, that was a good enough lead and Han would have been just fine leaving right then, but Ryoo insisted that they bring her mother along.

And that was why Han was sitting in front of two women who apparently didn't understand the concept of 'the quiet game'. Sola was insistent to tell him the entire history of her sister and Ryoo would start to jabber about… well she started to talk about something, Han had stopped listening when they got to 'Padmé's Second Term as Queen', which was about two days ago give or take.

The constant chitchat was finally broken by a roar from Chewbacca (who, surprisingly, had been enjoying the company) announcing their arrival in Mos Espa in about ten minutes. Han was eternally grateful for the few moments of complete silence.

"Okay," Han began his orientation after they touched down, "Tatooine isn't like Naboo, the folks here won't be afraid to rough you up, watch your step, follow my lead, and, above all, don't say a word unless I tell you so."

The mother and daughter nodded, they were more than happy to comply with his instructions; they had never been here before after all.

Sola took her first, determined steps off the Millennium Falcon. She was confident, she held herself high amongst the slouching civilians, and she felt like she could do anything she set her mind to. She was going to get the twins back, they were the only connection to her sister that hadn't been severed by the cruel hands of death, they had been living a lie, they needed to know that they had an actual family, not father's who were merely pretending.

Han lead the miniscule procession into a gritty cantina and sat them all down in a shadowy, corner booth. The smuggler then left to ask around about a couple of kids that they might've seen, Sola now felt completely useless, she didn't belong in a place like this, she didn't know how to act around all these… ruffians, and how in the world did she think she would be able to help the search for her niece and nephew when she didn't even understand a good two-thirds of what the locals were saying?

The middle-aged woman rest her head on the table and immediately thought better of it, it probably hadn't been cleaned in a long while. Fear flashed through her as she saw Han leading a female togruta through the crowd.

"This is Mal," he introduced the rough looking woman as the two of them sat down, "She says that she's seen Luke and Leia."

Sola's interest peaked, "Really? Where? When?"

The togruta kicked her legs up on the table, nearly whacking Ryoo in the head, "'Bout three days ago, give er take, the twerps stole away on my ship, I woulda thrown 'em out the airlock, but I didn't find 'em 'til we were already within the atmosphere."

"What did you do with them?" Ryoo asked fearfully, thinking the worst just like her mother.

Mal shrugged, "Threw 'em into the Dune Sea, little chance they survived, few people do, what with the Sand People–"

"Thank you Mal," Han cut across and tried to push her out of the booth.

"Hey, hey, hey," her hand flicked to her blaster, "I believe you owe me somethin' in return for the information."

The smuggler rolled his eyes, "Whad'ya want?"

Mal eyes each of them up and down, "Not carryin' much are ya'? Humph, I 'spose I'll just take this." She plucked the turquoise bracelet off of Ryoo's wrist, "Gotta be worth somethin'." Without further ado, the togruta unceremoniously spat into a nearby spittoon and flounced away, cheerfully inspecting her new trinket.

"That bitch!" Ryoo snarled, "Dad gave that to me as a graduation present!"

Han shrugged, "Shoulda known better than to walk into a place like this with jewelry."