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The Mandalorian turned his helmet so he was looking down at the small woman at his side. The stormtroopers both seemed afraid of her, but she seemed perfectly ordinary. There didn't appear to be anything special about her. She was somewhere in her mid to late twenties, and had a long snarled braid of dark hair running down her back. Her skin was pale and sallow and there were bags under her eyes that looked like bruises. There was no fear in her violet eyes as the Stormtroopers searched for them even though she looked as though she could barely stand.

She cocked her head to the side as though she were listening to something. Then she tapped his shoulder and pointed to their left. Seconds later the Stormtroopers appeared exactly where she had said. The Mandalorian killed one while she fired at the second one.

While The Mandalorian was busy with his stormtrooper Yara swung around and fired her blaster at a third who ran into the room. She killed him with a single shot to the heart before he even made it out of the doorway.

The Mandalorian looked back down at the small woman. Did she have special hearing? She seemed to be able to know the stormtroopers were there before he did.

"Let's go," he said.

They stepped over the bodies of the stormtroopers and moved into corridor.

"One in front, one behind," Yara warned a second before the two doors on either end slid open. Yara whirled around, pressing her back against his and shooting the stormtrooper dead with a single shot as the Mandalorian roasted the one on his side with his flame thrower. The smell of burned flesh and melting plastic flooded Yara's nose. She wrinkled her nose, glancing at the Mandalorian, but he didn't appear bothered. She supposed he must have had a filter in his helmet or she didn't think he would be so quick to roast people. They stepped out into the main room and Yara slowed.

The Mandalorian glanced over his shoulder at the woman in confusion. So far she had been nothing but eager to get out of here, now she was hesitating. Was it fear of freedom?

"Mandalorian," she said in a hushed tone. "Give me the child," she ordered urgently.

He looked at her but didn't move to comply. There was something slightly off about her, he just couldn't put his finger on it. As much as he appreciated her help he was beginning to think trusting her might not be a great idea. The Stormtrooper's fear just didn't make sense. He tightened his arm around the child.

"They're coming!" she warned him. "You'll need your hands free."

The Mandalorian continued across the room as though he hadn't heard her. A moment later five stormtroopers surrounded them from all sides. Yara swung around, pressing her shoulders against the Mandalorian's back so they could each watch their enemies closing in on them from all sides.

Yara tightened her jaw. Had he just listened to her this could have all been avoided. She fought to make sense of the new flood of flashes every time she blinked. She cursed the drugs they had flooded into her system and fought to keep her eyes open. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she fought to stay focused on what was happening around them in the moment.

"Freeze! Drop your weapons!" the lead Stormtrooper warned.

"Wait," the Mandalorian said in a calm voice as he raised his hand holding his blaster. "What I'm holding is very valuable," he told them. He turned slowly to face the small woman standing behind him. Her shoulders were tight with tension as she kept her eyes and blaster on the stormtroopers on her side of the room. She glanced back at him when he moved and he nodded to her, encouraging her to follow his lead.

Yara threw her blaster into the dirt. She would die before she let them turn her into a lab rat again, but the Mandalorian had a plan. At least she hoped he had a plan. If half the stories she had heard about them were true this should be no problem for him. She let her eyes rest closed for half a second, temporarily embracing the painful flashes, and when she opened them a smirk twisted her lips.

The Mandalorian handed her the child. Then he crouched down as though to set his blaster on the ground. One of the stormtroopers stepped forward and grabbed Yara by the arm. Jerking her roughly across the floor and away from The Mandalorian.

"No funny business from you, I know what you are," the stormtrooper warned her, but there was a slight tremble of fear in his voice as he pointed his blaster at her head.

"Now turn and face me," the lead stormtrooper snarled at The Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian flexed his wrist and the Whistling Bird projectiles launched themselves from his forearm. He whirled, leaping to his feet, and pulled the woman against his chest, to protect her and the child from his weapons. Only being in close proximity to him would allow the technology to recognize them as friend and not foe.

The stormtroopers all fell and he stepped back from her, releasing her as quickly as possible and putting space between them.

Yara looked over the damage and let out a low whistle. "Wow," she said, and she bent down to pick up her borrowed blaster once more. She shook the sand out of it. She hated sand. Yara whirled around suddenly and fired a single shot straight into the heart of another stormtrooper that appeared in the doorway.

The Mandalorian watched as the body fell almost as fast as it appeared. "Nice shot," he observed emotionlessly, although the truth was it had been an incredible shot. He could have made the shot, but her speed was impressive, especially considering she still would have drugs in her system and looked like she was barely able to walk.

They slipped out the door into the alley. The Mandalorian looked both ways before he gestured for her to follow him. It was only a short distance to his ship and they would be home free.

Yara hesitated, glancing around. She was free, actually free. Her eyes pulled up to look at the sky above the buildings surrounding them. Part of her thought about slipping off on her own, but the other part of her recognized she stood a much better chance sticking with the Mandalorian as long as he was willing to help her.

The Mandalorian walked confidently onto the main street and turned towards the market. They were halfway through the market, he could see the edge of town but all around them he could hear the gentle beeping of trackers as they activated. His hand rested against his blaster and he kept his eyes on the crowd that was slowly gathering around them.

"Mandalorian," Yara said in warning. She shivered as the cool evening air hit her skin. The tough looking hunters were getting closer, and every step they took felt like the trap was closing around them.

"I see them," he promised her and he reached down and took her arm, pulling her closer to him as the hunters circled.

"Welcome back Mando," Greef Karga greeted, stepping out into the middle of the street, blocking the path to his ship. The leader of the Bounty Hunter's Guild on Nevarro stood confidently surrounded by his hunters. Although he wore the clothes of a posh aristo, the dark look in his eyes belied the image of comfortable wealth. He had earned his place as Guildmaster of the Hunters Guild.

"Now, put the package down," Greef warned, resting his hand on his blaster. "And let the girl go. You have no need for her."

The Mandalorian glanced down at the woman. She was almost eight inches shorter than him and he had to tip his helmet down so he could prevent anyone else from hearing his words. "Trust me," he told her firmly.

Yara swallowed, her eyes flickering over the hunters who were closing in around them. Then she lifted her chin and gazed up into the reflective T of his helmet. She couldn't see anything but her own troubled eyes looking back at her. She swallowed and nodded once, fast.

"I won't hurt you," he promised, his voice low and gravely coming through the modulator in his helmet.

"Okay," Yara agreed. "I trust you."

The Mandalorian took her at her word and snapped into action. He drew his blaster and grabbed her. He whipped her around, and pulled her back against his chest plate pressing his blaster against her head.

The Mandalorian didn't take his eyes off of Greef. "Step aside, we're going to my ship," he said confidently.

Greef chuckled although many of the others shifted nervously. The Mandalorian's reputation proceeded him and no one wanted to go head to head against him. Many had either seen him in action, or had seen the piles of bounty pucks he would bring in at a time; cashing out more bounties in a week than most of them managed in a cycle.

Greef spoke loudly and clearly. "You put the bounty down, step away from the girl, and perhaps I'll let you pass."

"They're coming with me," The Mandalorian growled.

"If you truly care about the kid, then you'll put it on the speeder and we'll discuss terms," Greef spoke calmly although his eyes were locked on where The Mandalorian was holding a gun against the young woman. She wasn't worth a penny to them dead.

"How do I know I can trust you?" The Mandalorian asked.

Yara was watching the two men closely. Although The Mandalorian had the blaster on her, she did trust him. She wasn't quite sure why, but in her life she had learned to trust her instincts. Even though he seemed to be considering the offer she didn't think he would go for it. Her eyes flickered over all of the hunters surrounding them, there was no way they were going to let him out of here peacefully even if he did hand them over. The damage had already been done.

Greef scoffed. "Because I'm your only hope," he said simply. Greef had worked with The Mandalorian for a few years now and he prided himself on being a good judge of character. The Mandalorian was a man of honor. There was no way he would endanger the life of a woman or a child unless absolutely necessary. The trick now, was getting the assets away from him without losing too many of his loyal hunters in the process.

The Mandalorian moved towards the speeder slowly, pushing the young woman ahead of him. The sleeping child was snuggled in her arms. She didn't look afraid as he had expected. Instead she just looked mad. He admired her for that. Her jaw was set and her eyes were snapping with temper as she glared at Greef, as though she blamed him for being in this situation. He didn't want her to ever look at him like that. 

"Be ready," he said in a low voice.

Then before she could react he grabbed her and flipped them both into the speeder. The short sides and cargo crates provided cover as the whole street exploded into blaster fire. The Mandalorian rolled over on top of Yara, letting the beskar on his back absorb any shots that cleared the sides of the speeder. Yara wrapped her arms around the child, holding his small body against her chest as the Mandalorian flinched as his armor took the blaster hits for them.

"They want them alive!" Greef yelled, but the group of hunters were already firing at the speeder with abandon. They were all too afraid of The Mandalorian to take any chances of him getting out of the speeder.

The Mandalorian pushed himself up on his hands and fired at the hunters advancing on them. Yara turned to the droid. "Drive," she ordered it. It beeped at her and she scowled, raising her blaster and pointing it at it's processing core. "I said drive!" she yelled to be heard over the cacophony of blaster fire.

The droid beeped in fear and the speeder immediately started moving. She and the Mandalorian fired as they went. They were both fairly impressive shots, taking down hunter after hunter as they went. Then someone got a lucky shot off on the droid and the speeder dropped, swinging wildly towards the building on their right where it crashed. Yara was thrown sideways into the crates as they crashed down around her. She kept her arm wrapped tightly around the child, protecting it from the falling debris. She wasn't sure what happened to The Mandalorian, but the crash had thrown them apart.

Everything went still and oppressively quiet as the hunters started circling. The Mandalorian swung his pulse rifle around into his hands and started picking them off one by one. Every hunter he blasted disintegrated. By the fifth one all the remaining hunters ran for cover for fear of being vaporized. Yara belly crawled closer to the Mandalorian, keeping the child under one arm.

"That's one impressive weapon," Greef called from safety behind a pillar.

'Here's what I'm gonna do," The Mandalorian replied calmly. "I'm going to walk to my ship with the kid and the woman and you're gonna let it happen."

"No," Greef countered. "How about this, we take the kid and the girl, and if you try to stop us we kill you and we strip your body for parts."

A bad feeling went over Yara, like a whisper on the back of her neck. She whirled on instinct. A hunter was less than a foot away from the Mandalorian's back, leveling his blaster. She jerked up her blaster and fired point blank into the face of the hunter.

The Mandalorian's helmet snapped around and he looked from the dead hunter to the woman. She nodded grimly to him and turned to watch his back.

"She's helping him!" one of the hunters yelled and the shooting started again as the hunters closed in.

"Don't hit the targets!" Greef yelled. "Don't hit the targets! They want them both alive!"

The Mandalorian activated his flame thrower and used it in great swinging arcs to keep the hunters back. Yara came up in a crouch inside his guard, just to the side of his arm with the flame thrower. She took out as many as she could, firing rapidly, every shot hit its mark and more hunters dropped. This close Yara could feel the heat of the flames, but she moved with him like a dance and it kept her protected.

The hunters all scattered until the flames sputtered and died. The Mandalorian shook his wrist and banged on the control but it didn't help. The Mandalorian grabbed Yara and pulled her down, shielding her with his beskar covered body once more as the hunters opened fire. Yara ducked down, pressing her face into his shoulder as the roar of blaster fire all around them filled her ears. Now they had him down, this time they weren't going to risk letting The Mandalorian get another chance at regaining his position and shooting at them.

The Mandalorian held himself up on his hands so he wouldn't crush her and the child, "I'm sorry," he said with a grimace in his voice as the whole speeder shuddered. His body jerked as he took shot after shot against his armored back. None of the blasts were strong enough to make it through the beskar, but it still hurt. He looked down into the woman's face as she leaned into his chest.

She lifted her chin. "It's okay," she promised him, but there was an air of hopelessness to her voice.

The Mandalorian gritted his teeth. She expected him to just hand them over, he could see it in her face. The only way out of this was to surrender and hand them over. He couldn't do it however and eventually someone was going to get in a lucky shot. He cradled the two of them, protecting them with his own body knowing this was going to be the end.

This is the way.

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the update and continue to enjoy the story! Look for another update in the next couple days!