" war "
Night fell over the village. Everyone found their positions for the attack. Lana was shoulder to shoulder with Omera.
There was silence among the village at all the stations awaiting Mando and Caras arrivial with the raiders close on their tails.
Before anyone knew it the two were sprinting inside to barriers. Behind them came a giant machine, the one Cara spoke about.
They dove into the pits the villagers had dug earlier and began the commands.
"Weapons ready." Cara shouts
Lana grows more nervous as the thudding of the walker continues toward them. In the trees shes sees two red eyes glowing, they were high, higher than Mandos ship. Lana swallows the ball in her throat and turns to Omera. She can tell how nervous Lana is. "We got this." Omera tries to reassure her.
The giant emerges from the woods, stepping closer toward the hole they dug earlier. "Almost there." Lana says to herself fervoursly waiting for the machine to plummet into the hole but she spoke too soon. It stops right before the pit.
It now stood looking over the village, waiting for something. It felt so eerie, having the machine look over the village, knowing it had the high ground over them.
Lanas breath hitched when a light from the machine began shining toward them. The light blinded her temporarily.
Omera and her hid behind the barricade. Lana tried rubbing her eyes and blinking excessively but it didn't make the spots in her vision disappear.
The light scanned over the entire barricade before it halted and fired on the village. It had a lousy shot but still did damage to the structures around them.
Lana felt the heat of the sparks fall around her.
After the shot, Lana heard framiler roars coming from beneath the beast.
Its them
The raiders began sprinting toward the blockade. Lana felt herself begin to tremble but fought her oncoming panicking.
"Open fire!" Cara yelled from infront of them.
There was chaos every where, guns blasting, raiders yelling, barricades being blown away. It was overwhelming to the girl.
Lana had her gun set on top of the wall with her eyes closed calming herself.
Mando turned back to her and saw she wasnt shooting "Use your anger Lana, use it dammit!"
Lanas eyes shot opened at the sound of Mandos voice and realized what he said to her again.
She nodded, taking a deep breath. She held the gun close to her body and began open fire on the incoming bandits.
A hit
A hit
A hit
The large mech started shooting at the village again, creating more chaos. Lana ran from her position next to Omera to throw herself into the pits next to Mando and Cara.
"We need to get that thing down!" She shouts to the two of them.
"What do you suppose we do?" Cara yells back.
"Take that rifle and get its attention, lure it in." Lana continued shooting at the incoming raiders. Cara glances to Mando, mando tossed her his rifle.
"Let's hope this works." She says loading the rifle.
"Have any other plan?" Mando asks breathlessly.
Cara began running toward the mech with Mandos riffle in hand. She tried her best to cover Cara so she could fulfill their plan.
Amid all the chaos Lana didn't see the giant Mech fall, she was to focused on taking the raiders infront of her out when it did.
She heard the boom and she saw it crush into the ground. "She did it." She says to Mando, but he doesn't respond. He threw himself out of the trench and began running toward the mech with a red glowing weapon in his hand.
Lana watched in aw as Mando blew it to pieces and the last of the raiders retreated. She got her last few shots in before a breath of relief leaves her.
Lana exhausted slumps over the ground in front of her from the pit. Omera quickly comes to her side. Omera lets out a small laugh and smiles with Lana.
Omera pulls Lana into her arms. "Your father would be proud."
At that moment Lana couldn't contain her emotion, her raw emotion. She broke down into Omeras arms. It was strange, her emotions were all over the place. She thought shooting down the raiders who killed her father would make her feel better, but it didn't fill her empty soul.
•·················•·················•
The next few days following in the village were quiet. It was mostly cleaning up the disater that swept through.
Mando stayed close to Lana, usally wherever she was helping, he would too. Vice versa.
Mando and her continued to bond, with their small conversations a few times throughout the day, or the small glances they would give eachother after they were done.
Omera saw the spark between the two and she was happy for Lana, she was fond of the Mandalorian and thought it would be good for her.
Little did Omera knew Mando would be leaving them.
•·················•·················•
A week after the battle, Mando and Cara were still hanging around the village, Cara was mostly drinking Spotchka and Mando would help with whatever the villagers needed to rebuild some of the structures that were destoryed.
This one evening, Mando and Cara sat outside of Mandos home. They could see Lana playing with the child near the fire pit with the other children.
Cara was sat down on the porch while Mando was leaning against the side of the house with his hands crossed infront of him.
Mando watched as the little child giggled while Lana would make faces at him. Once in a while Lana would pick him up and bring him up into the air which just made him giggle even more.
He couldn't help but watch the two interact. Part of him wanted to join them. It truly filled his heart.
"So what happens if you take that thing off?" Cara asks to him taking a sip of her cup. "They come after you and kill you?"
"No, you just cant ever put it back on again." Mando says blankly.
"Thats it? So you can slip off the helmet, and settle down with the beautfiul girl and raise your kid sipping spotchka?"
Mandos silently beaming under his helmet at her. He knew she was right, but he had to fight his thoughts, this is the way.
"You know we raised some hell here recently, its too much action for a backwater town like this. word travels fast, might want to cycle the charts and move on."
"Would not wanna be the one whos gotta tell him." Cara says surprised, pointing at the child with her cup.
"I'm leaving him here. Traveling with me, thats not life for a kid. I did my job, he's safe. Better chance at a life."
"Its gonna break his little heart."
"He'll get over it. We all do." Mando says. It was more like he was trying to convince himself.
•·················•·················•
Later on into the evening after Cara left, Mando decided to talk to Lana about the child.
He silently walks into Lanas home. She doesnt notice his step, he coughs trying to get her to notice. He watches her jump at his sudden sound.
"Oh, Mando hi."
Lana is sitting on her cot reading through a book when he arrives. Its later at night, she isnt dressed in her usual atire. Now she is in a gray sleeveless nightgown that stops above her knees.
He couldn't help but keep his eyes off the beauty infront of him, but he restrained himself knowing he should respect the woman in front of him.
"Hi- I just wanted to say something before I leave tommorow." His words felt dry to him, "Thank you for your hospitality. You and the community have been too kind."
He felt his fists curl at his sides, his inner consciousness yelling at him to just to stay.
"You did your job, we had to repay you." Lana explains, stepping from her spot on her bed, to be an arms length away from him.
"I'm leaving the kid here." He finally pushes out.
"Oh."
"Would you..." he draws out.
"I'll watch over your boy. I promise." She reads his mind.
Lana gives him a weak smile, she didn't want him to leave. She grew so comfortable around him.
Her friend.
Before another word left either of their mouths a gunshot rang through the village.
Mando sprinted outside to the child with Lana at his heels. He took the child up from where he was siting around the other children at the fire pit. The child squeaked as he briskly handed the child over to Lanas familiar arms.
Mando stripped himself of his cape and wrapped it around Lanas exposed body. He gave her one squeeze of the shoulder before sprinting toward the forest.
Lana quickly ran with the child into her home where she sat back on the cot she was previously, rocking the child to ease its scard and confsued cooing.
•·················•·················•
Not much time had passed before Mando returned to her. She still had his cape wrapped around her.
"What was that?" She questions Mando.
"People are coming for him. It was another bounty hunter. I thought he'd be safe here. I was wrong."
Lana looked down to the child with a frown, but she knew it would be best for the him.
"So you're taking him?"
Mando sets himself down on the other end of her bed.
"I'm sorry."
Lana wasn't ready to lose either of them yet.
"When you leave... could I-I come with?" Lana is afraid to meet his gaze, she felt like what she asked was too risky.
"You want to leave here?" His voice sounded so soft even with his modulated voice.
"This is my home but, I want to get out of here. For a little while at least."
"I think you'd make a great ship companion."
Lana lifts her head and smiles. She was excited, but yet sad to be leaving Omera.
Mando lit up at the thought of having her travel with him, to have her companionship.
•·················•·················•
The next day, Lana had her things packed in a bag Mando had let her use. She only brought clothes and a few things of her fathers. She knew she couldn't bring everything of her fathers so she gave her other things to Omera to hold for her until she was to return.
The goodbye process was something Lana wasn't expecting to make her feel so down, but so free.
The goodbye which hurt her the most was Omera and Winta. Omera had teared up when Lana told her she was leaving that day. Lana wished she could've gave Omera more of heads up but Mando insisted they didn't to leave immediately.
Lana pulled away from Omeras hug. A hug that felt like home, the only person that made her feel this way was her father.
"Come back once in a while." Lana can't help but feel a tear fall from her eye. "I'll miss you."
With that, Lana turned her back to Omera and loaded her pack into the cruiser. Mando had loaded the last bin and turned to Lana.
"Well then you two, until our paths cross." Cara says behind them, putting her hand out to Mando. "Until our paths cross." Mando repeats back to her.
Lana hadn't expect Cara to do the same. She grasped her hand and repeated back to her "Until our paths cross."
"Keep him in line would you?" Cara says teasing the two.
Lana gives her a soft giggle. "I'll try my best."
Mando scoffs, turning his head toward Lana "Are you ready?"
Lana finds her spot on the cruiser with her legs dangling over the edge. Mando makes his way beside her with the child between them.
Lana watched as the group of villagers waving them goodbye slowly dissapeard into the horizon.
This was the start to a journey she'd never expected.