" again "
"I say we hear him out." Karga says to them. Under his helmet, Mando bites the inside of his cheek. "The minute we open that door we're dead." Cara says passing by him.
"At least out there, we've got a shot." Karga argues gesturing toward the window.
Cara sits herself on the ground, "That's easy for you to say. I'm a Rebel Shock Trooper. They'll upload me to a Mind Flayer." She says grabbing all the weapons she can find off the dead Stormtroopers scattered along the room.
"That was just wartime propaganda." Karga protests.
"I don't care to find out. I'm shooting my way out of here." Cara spits.
Karga glances back to Mando and Lana. "What about you two?"
Mando glanced at the battle torn window, "I know who he is. It's Moff Gideon."
"No. Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes."
"It's him. He knew my name." Din sneers.
"So, what does that prove?"
"I haven't heard that name spoken since..." He glances to Lana, "...since I was a child."
"On Mandalore?" Karga questions.
"I wasn't born on Mandalore." Din continues. Lana dips her head slightly, waiting for Din to speak of his true origin. He didn't tell her once because he wasn't ready, now he really has no choice.
"But you're Mandalorian." Karga points out confused.
"Mandalorian isn't a race." Cara adds in.
"It's a creed." Mando stays still for a few seconds, finally shaking himself out of it.
"I was a foundling. They raised me in the Fighting Corps. I was treated as one of their own. When I came of age I was sworn to the Creed. The only record of my family name was in the registers of Mandalore. Moff Gideon was an ISB Officer during the purge. That's how I know him." He explains.
"That's how he knows who we all are." Cara says standing and bringing her weapons with her.
"He says he needs us, which means the child got away safely. I was worried when the Ugnaught didn't respond,"
"His name is Kuiil." Lana states.
"When Kuiil didn't respond, but if they'd capture the kid, we'd be dead already." He echoes.
"Hail them again." Cara says running past Mando and Lana. In front of them, Karga picks up a bottle of the blue glowing liquid Lana had on Sorgan, taking a large sip of it then pouring himself another.
Mando lifts the commlink to his helmet again. "Come in, Kuiil. Kuiil? Nothing." He voice sounded weak.
Cara was at the other wall now, aiming her blaster toward the window. "They might have jammed the link." Mando considers what she says, but the link beeps, revealing the child's coos through it.
"It's the baby, but where is Kuiil?" Lana says stepping closer to Mando.
"Kuiil has been terminated." IG-11's robotic voice responds over the link. Mando felt his anger build inside him, his chest cavity felt like it was going to explode at the droid's words. He slowly lifted the link to his helmet again, gritting the words between his teeth. "What did you do?"
Lana ran her hand through her hair, pulling her hair scarf from her head. She crossed one arm over her chest, letting the other prop up her head. Kuiil was another innocent killed.
"I am fulfilling my base function."
Lana knew Mando wanted to break that commlink in his hands every word the droid spoke. "Which is?"
"To nurse and protect."
On that note, blasters firing rang in the distance of the cantina. The Troopers outside were the first pull their attention toward it. Slowly, all the troopers moved their position toward where the firing was coming from.
"What are they doing?" Lana says.
"Look." Cara shouts. Mando runs to the window peeking his head to see what they were all aiming toward. Lana follows his lead and finds herself next to Cara and Mando.
"IG-11's here to raise some hell." Lana shouts grabbing a blaster rifle from one of the other fallen Troopers.
"Cover us." Mando shouts Cara. Cara jumps on the bar aiming her machine gun blaster toward the troops. Mando stands in front of the closed door waiting for Lana to be beside him. "You're untouchable."
The door opened revealing the wasteland of dead Troopers and blaster fire going every which way. Mando shot the first trooper, kicking the next in the chest who tried running up on him. Lana ran out firing the blaster at wherever she saw white. Karga ran out behind them too coming to Lana's side.
She watched as Mando tried fighting one of the all black Troopers. He was shot multiple times in his beskar leaving him open to his attack. The trooper grabbed his arm, attempting to pull at his helmet. Lana moved her position to take the trooper down with one pull around his neck dropping him and firing a final shot through his armor.
Within that time another Trooper ran up on Mando throwing him to the ground. Mando easily took him down with a shot through the chest guard. Mando popped back up, side by side with Lana.
"Mando, they're taking IG-11 down, he has the child we need to do something." Lana shouts over the obnoxious sound of rapid fire. Mando glances to the E-web beside them. He grabs the huge cannon from the stand which was aimed toward the cantina.
Lana smirks running to gain cover from the huge weapons destruction. She hides in the alleyway beside the cantina and another war-torn building. "You're quite a badass Mando." She yells.
Easily, Mando took down most of the remaining troopers in the middle of the street. The weapon could have killed the four in an instant if they didn't act on it.
From her position, Lana spotted the Troopers walking toward the other door of the Cantina where Cara was still inside. She saw one of the same black armored Troopers place a device on the door. "No! Mando!" She screams trying to get him to notice.
Over the blasts of the riffles going off around them, and the giant E-web mechanism there was no way Mando couldn't hear her. His attention was only gained by the blast itself.
Lana continued to shoot from her hidden position.
A hit
A hit
A hit.
Easily she took down any opposing Troopers who came in her sight.
Amidst all the firing and random blasts throughout the wasteland, Lana didn't notice a certain Moff Gideon walk into the middle of the street, with his blasted pointed at Mando's back. He struck Mando's beskar earning a short groan from him.
Annoyed, Mando turned to face him, realizing who was standing in front of him. Before Mando could turn the weapon on him, Moff shot the E-web power source beside Mando. Mando was thrown away from the mass of the explosion. Lana watched in horror as he was slumped on the ground. The fire from the explosion slowly dying down.
Lana ran to him, grabbing his chest plate and pulling him to sit up. She never saw him look so weak. His head hung down as he slumped into Lana's arms. "Cara!" Lana screams.
She picks up his helmet in her hands making him face her. "Din, Din look at me. You're alright, c'mon it's just a scratch. You're gonna be fine..." She tries to convince herself realizing how weak he was in her hands. Din can't even respond to her; he knows his fate already.
Cara came to their side. She grabbed Mando from under his armpits to drag him inside the cantina. Karga and Lana covered them as they finally made it past the doorway.
IG-11 joined them now, making a few last shots before closing the door. Cara dragged him through the cantina, grunting at his weight he couldn't carry on his own.
"Stay with me, buddy. We're gonna get you out of here." She says dropping him for him to be propped up on a turned over table. Lana came to his side placing a hand the side of his helmet, tears welling up in her eyes. Din leans into her touch weakly.
"This is our only path out can you clear it?" Karga shouts pointing toward the vent. IG-11 comes to Karga's side, placing the child on the floor next to Lana.
"If you go near this child, I will no choice but to kill you." He says to Karga.
"I understand. Can you do anything to move the grate?" He begs.
"Yes of course." He agrees. Dropping himself next to the grate going to work on getting them a safe passage away from here.
"I'm not gonna make it. You need to go." Mando breaths out in pain. Lana shakes her head placing a hand on his chest plate.
"Shut up. You just got your bell rung. You'll be fine." Cara yells at him, obviously in pain also.
"Leave me." He whispers. Cara removes her hand from Mando's neck revealing blood covering her hand. Lana's heart drops. She feels the tears fall from her face. "Din..." She barely whispers. "You're gonna be fine."
He turns toward her. He places his hand on hers over his chest. "I'm gonna need to take this thing off." Cara says grabbing the sides of Mando's helmet. His hand flies away from Lana's to grab Cara's wrist.
"No. You take Lana and the child and you leave me." He says drawing his further painful breaths.
"Here." He rips something off his neck. He grabs Lana's hand still on his chest and places the bloody charm into her hand.
"When you get to the Mandalorian covert, you show them that."
Lana opens her hand to reveal the charm. It was silver and resembled an animal with two horns leaving its jaw. His breath was still shaky, "You tell them it's from Din Djarin. You tell them the foundling was in my protection, and they'll help you."
Din watches as one of Lana's tears drops onto his armor. He lifts his hand toward her cheek. "We can make it." Cara begs.
Lana begins having flashbacks to her father's death in her arms. The way he touched her cheek a final time. She couldn't handle the pain.
"Come on let's go." Cara tries lifting him from his spot. "I'm not gonna make it and you know it." He whispers back to her.
Lana turns to Cara. "He's right." She breaths out shakily. She didn't want to believe it, she truly didn't.
Then, a blast of fire flies through the cantina. Lana drops onto Mando's chest lightly. Mando wraps his arms around her, pulling her closer to him for one last time.
Suddenly, the stream of flames stops, but leaves the cantina on fire. Lana lifts herself from him. "You protect our family. I can hold them back long enough for you to escape. Let me have a warrior's death."
"I won't leave you." Cara says through her teeth. Lana's head drops onto Din's chest hiding her sobs. "This Is The Way." She says letting her tears fall. More fire streams through the cantina, revealing a Stormtrooper dressed in red markings and a black backpack. Lana lifts her head at the last moment and watches in fear as he aims the gun, he is holding toward the child who was siting innocently on the floor.
In slow motion, Lana flew up from Din, but he grabbed her wrist pulling her back down to him. Lana hugged him closely, squeezing her eyes shut. Then, they waited for the fire. The fire which was to finally kill them and put an end to the continuously running. To put an end to the small family they formed, and the healing Lana was brought.
But that fire never came.
Lana and Mando lifted their heads slightly to see the child with its arms in the air directly in front of the flames. The flames were stopped midair by the small child. Lana had seen the child's abilities, but every time it did such, she couldn't wrap her head around it.
Using one last flick of the child's wrist, the flames were reversed, flying into the Trooper, earning a scream from him.
"Oh my..." She whispers. She ran to grab the child from where it laid, bringing him back to Din.
He lifts his shaky hand to the child's ear, the child leaned into his touch. "It's open let's get out of here." Karga yelled.
"Go. Go." He says, now lifting his hand to Lana's cheek.
"We have to move! Now!" Karga shouts from the side again.
Lana places the child in his arm to the side of him, the child cuddles into Mando's side. Lana moves to rest her forehead on his. "I think I love you."
He lets a tear drop from eye beneath his helmet. He squeezes his eyes closed holding back more tears.
"I love you." He repeats, he voices under the helmet sounded so broken.
"Escape and protect the child. I will stay with the Mandalorian." IG-11 says coming to Lana's side.
Lana stands grabbing the bag from the ground and placing the child in it. She picks up her riffle from Din's side. Cara walks up to IG-11. "Promise me you'll bring him."
"You have my word."
Lana takes one last look at Mando, he has his helmet toward her watching as tears left her eyes. Mando nodded slowly letting her know it was okay to let go. Lana nodded back getting her last glimpse at him, before following Karga and Cara down the vent. She didn't know that he'd be back.
This lowkey hurt me to write though.