Nevarro.
Angela opened her eyes, she couldn't listen to the spoken words, the first voice to reach her ears was Caras. "They're setting up an E-Web."
It took her a moment to register what she said, she glanced outside, eyes widening at the Trooper building up the weapon.
"It's over."
Angela looked from Greef to Mando, he searched something, "I found the sewer vent."
"Let's get the hell out of here." Cara and Mando run, lifting the pieces of furniture away, Angela stood in place, her eyes on the Trooper outside.
They powered up the heavy weapon, turning it to the window, if they shoot there wouldn't be much left of them.
"It's assembled! How long until that thing's cleared?" Greef asked the two behind him. "Blow it."
"I'm out of charges." Cara grabbed her gun, trying to shoot the vent open but to no use, it wasn't enough.
"Your astute panic suggests that you understand your situation. I would prefer to avoid any further violence, and encourage a moment of consideration. Members of my escort have completed assembly of an E-Web heavy repeating blaster."
Angela crouched next to Mando and Cara, her head down even tough they aren't shooting, the man didn't stop, his silence bringing Angela on edge, for a moment she was feared.
"If you are unfamiliar with this weapon, I am sure that Republican Shock Trooper Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan will advise you that she has witnessed many of her ranks vaporize mid-descent facing the predecessor of this particular model." The Imoperial began to speak, offering insight to the information he seemed to have gathered about them.
And Aldeeran, she didn't knew it was Caras home, the red head looked to the ground, knowing that feeling of dread and pain Cara must have felt that moment.
They took some steps forward, equipped with their blasters, "Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter, Din Djarin," Her eyes widened, how could he know Mandos name?
"has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recruits in The Night of a Thousand Tears."
She remembered some stories, her uncle telling her about Mandalore as a child and some others told by an old friend.
"Or Angela Hailyn Kenobi of Jedha, a force sensitive with far too much knowledge of old days. You were of great interest to the Empire, the information and skill you posses, others would kill for it. It seems your Masters have trained you good, you vanished a long time ago, it was hard to get a hold of you."
Her face drained of colour, how could he know? She was so careful to erase her past as a Jedi when the Empire fell, it was too dangerous not to.
"I advise disgraced Magistrate Greef Karga to search the wisdom of his years and urge you to lay down your arms and come outside. The structure you are trapped in will be razed in short order and your storied lives will come to an unceremonious end."
"What do you propose?" He wouldn't let them go, why should he, Angela battled with herself.
"Reasonable negotiation."
Greef tried nonetheless, "What assurance do you offer?"
Angela scoffed, she looks at Mando for the first time in a while and he looks back at her, the mark of a lonely tear ran down her face, across the long scar vivid on her cheek and neck, her eyes held pain, even fear, but not for herself.
Since he met her she's only been strong, calm and the brightest star he's ever seen, it scared him, the pain she feels is for someone else, someone whos faith wasn't confirmed yet.
He laid a hand to her face, his thumb trailing along the dried tear, she gave him a smile, a sign of hope, she wouldn't give up just yet and neither would he.
But the man outside wasn't done yet, "If you're asking if you can trust me, you cannot. Just as you betrayed our business arrangement, I would gladly break any promise and watch you die at my hand. The assurance I give is this: I will act in my own self-interest, which at this time involves your cooperation and benefit. I will give you until nightfall, and then I will have the E-Web cannon open fire." He turned and walked away, leaving them behind in terror.
Greef looked at them, "I say we hear him out."
Angela gave him a drained look, Mandos hand already left her face, hanging to his side, "We would die nonetheless, look Cara was a Rebel Trooper. Me, they would kill me without second thought, or worse, leave me alive. He won't let us go free and I'm sure not even you are ready to pay the price it'll cost. I still have hope and hope is the only thing stronger than fear, if we loose it we will die."
He wanted to go against her word but didn't, he instead turned to Mando, the man now standing beside him. "What about you, Mando?"
"I know who he is." All eyes now on the Mandalorian as he spoke, Angela raised a brow in question, "It's Moff Gideon."
His words sounded almost impossible, she knew of Moff Gideon, she may never met him in person before but was sure he's dead.
"No. Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes." Cara said sitting on the ground beside them.
"It's him. He knew my name."
Greef didn't understand the severity of that knowledge, it would explain why he knew who she was. "So? What does that prove?"
"I haven't heard that name spoken since I was a child." Angela put a hand on the Mandalorians shoulder, his emotions were all over the place and still his voice was calm.
"On Mandalore?"
"I was not born on Mandalore."
Greef was earnestly confused, "But you're a Mandalorian."
"Mandalorian is not a race. It's a Creed."
Mando froze, his mind elsewhere, pain and memories flooding his thoughts, "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 it's him."
An officer of the Imperial Security Bureau, he was the only one knowing about them, hopefully, it explained ho could get his hands on such crucial information.
"He says he needs us, which means the child got away safely. I was worried when the Ugnaught didn't respond, but if they'd captured the kid, we'd already be dead."
Angela shuddered at the thought of Kuiil, "He is dead." Her voice was to quiet, the pain not letting her talk louder, she tried to reach Mando but he already talked into his comms.
"Come in, Kuiil. Kuiil?... Nothing."
Cara positioned, ready too shoot her heavy gun, "They might have jammed the link."
The childs coos and laughs sounded trough the comms, followed by the voice of the Droid. "Kuiil has been terminated."
Angela slowly put her blaster into its holster as Mando spoke. "What did you do?"
She took off the leather lacing her staff, old symbols and fine lines of black and silver, the metal shining bright.
"I am fulfilling my base function."
"Which is?"
She eyed it carefully, turning it slightly, a soft click as she took it off the staff, the unimportant part, she adhered to her back.
"To nurse and protect."
A weapon for a more civilized age.
The part she took off, Mando observing her movement, "What are you doing Angela?" He sounded confused, she gave him a confident answer.
"Preparing myself. He already knows who I am, there is no denying it now, I will open you the way and draw fire on me, then..."
She got interrupted by shooting, the Trooper outside turned to their right, weapons held high, they took cover as IG-11, with the child, slide into the Trooper, shooting one after the other.
"Cover me." Cara started open fire, the Mandalorian stepping out the door, Angela followed after Greef, both men already fighting, she took a deep breath mumbling an old mantra of a long lost dead mentor.
"I'm one with the Force and the Force is with me."
She ignited the white dual blade , one emitting an almost unseen hue off green and the other a faded red in its core, Mando and Greef looking at them in sheer astonishment and surprise.
She blocked the shots gracefully, directing them back at the Trooper as she swung them around her body in swift motion, faster then the men could shoot.
Reaching a hand out, she pushed the incoming men away, the sabers danced around her hands, using them coming to her like second nature, unused for so long.
Mando used the distraction she caused to detach the E-blaster, slowly he turned the heavy weapon, shooting everything in its way.
Angela fought her way over to IG-11, covering the child, the Trooper kept their distance from her, shooting non stop. She almost got hit as she was shortly distracted by an explosion at the door to the bar Cara was still inside.
She divided the blade and threw one of her sabers, it circled its way through half the Troopers, separating limps and an upper body, the rest of them already fled inside, he called it back to her hand.
Too occupied with fighting, she could only call out to him as Gideon shot the Mandalorian, she heard him cry out in pain.
"Mando, watch out!" Her warning came to late, Gideon shot at the E-blaster battery, the explosion let the Mandalorian fly a few feet before he hit the hard ground.
Angela ran over, staying protective before him, her sabers crossing slightly before her. She blocked enough shots to give Cara the time to drag the Mandalorian back in, walking backwards as she was following.
The door closed behind them, Cara sat Mando down, Angela turned her sabers off, putting them back together and hanging them on her waist.
"Stay with me, buddy. We're gonna get you out of here."
She helped Cara rest him against the stone, she knelt down beside him, a hand hovering over his chest, she placed it on the beskar, covering where his heart would be, trying to keep him steady.
"This is our only path out. Can you clear it?" Greef asked the Droid, motioning to the vent.
"Stay with me." At Caras desperate words she heard the child whimper softly, he understood their distress, he feared for Mando.
The Droid sat the child down, turning to Greef, "If you go near this child, I will no choice but to kill you." Angela looked at the child before calling out to the Droid. "Don't worry I've got it, get us out of here now."
Mando looks at Cara and both women at him, he was badly injured. "I'm not gonna make it. Go."
"Shut up. You just got your bell rung. You'll be fine." Cara tried the reassure them, to no use.
Angela watched as Caras face changed to one of horror, she took her hand from beneath Mandos helmet, it was coated in the mans thick red blood.
Tears glisten in her eyes, she likes him, he was good company, only making his first steps into a better future, he didn't deserve to die like this, he was meant for more.
"I'm gonna need to take this thing off." Cara tried to lift his helmet but he didn't let her.
Angela wanted to say something, she could only watch them, her hand clung to the crystal around her neck.
"No. You leave me. You make sure the child is safe." His head turned slightly to Angela, his voice growing weaker as he spoke, her hand still laid on his chest, her eyes searching his benath the helmet, he was unfocused.
"I'm sorry I can't heal you, it's not my strength but even then, your injuries are to severe."
He laid his gloved hand on hers, squeezing it as much as he could. "It's okay. You're like him, he will be save with you."
She smiled weak, whispering, turning her hand around to squeeze his. "I will protect it with my life."
He took his hand away, reaching under his armor and handing her a necklace with the skull of the Mythosaur attached to it, he trusted it into her hands, enclosing her fingers around it with both hands.
"Here. When you get to the Mandalorian covert, you show them that. You tell them it's from Din Djarin. You tell them the foundling was in my protection, and they'll help you." Angela put it away in one of the many pockets on her belts.
Cara tried to pull the Mandalorian up so he could go with them but he was to weak. "I'm not gonna make it and you know it."
Nobody could utter a word, they were interrupted by flames, Angela throw herself before the child. The flames were gone for a moment, the child looked scared at her, but his eyes held a spark of something else, she frowned.
Again, the room was engulfed in flames, a Flametrooper stepped in, his weapon was directed at the child, Angela sat up behind it, ready to snatch it away, the movement of its hands stopped her though.
The child concentrated in on the flames, keeping them at bay, Angela's eyes widened at his strength, he had more power then she anticipated. It struggled slightly, he got hurt on the way to them, so she helped him.
She closed her eyes, reaching out, and as the child flicked his hand so did she, sending the flames back to the Trooper.
He fell back in exhaustion, she carefully lifted him up and handed him to IG-11, the Droid gave the child to Cara as Angela knelt down beside the Mandalorian.
"Go, save the child. I won't make it."
Angela shook her head, she made a fist and held it over her heart. "You'll make it, there is still hope. You need to have trust in it." Mando grow confused.
"Trust in what?" She just smiled, her hand still hovering over her heart, she bowed before him in respect, still answering his question in a way.
"May the Force be with you Din Djarin, may it bring you peace."
She left it at that, leaving him with the Droid behind, he was strong, he would make it, she was sure of that.
..................................
Edited: 30/11/20