Hello All! I'm back with more Yara and Mando! My busy season of work is slowly winding down and I'm enjoying getting back to writing!

Happy Reading!

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"All right," Mayfeld said once they were all on board the prison ship. "We're on the clock. When we engage those droids, they're gonna be all over us," he said shoving his shoulder into Mando's as he moved to take the lead.

"I know the drill," Mando said, his voice buzzed emotionlessly through the vocoder. He was liking this situation less and less as time went by. He wanted Yara out of there as fast as possible. He glanced down at her, but she was entirely focused on watching the dimly lit hall at their back. She closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them, she met his gaze. She shrugged her shoulders in way that told him her gift wasn't providing any insight at that time.

"Bio trackers activated," Zero informed them through their comms. "I've got eyes."

"All right, let's go," Mayfeld said and he led the way, clearing every corner as they moved toward the bridge.

Mando followed right behind Mayfeld and Yara brought up the rear. She didn't like the idea of allowing Xi'an and Burg at Mando's back. She had her hand resting against her blaster, but she hadn't pulled it yet. The ship was eerily quiet for supposedly being full of prisoners. She didn't like the feeling she was getting as they passed several of the heavy cell doors. There were individuals on this ship they couldn't risk letting escape job be damned.

"I don't like this," Mando muttered as they stepped around another corner.

"You always were paranoid," Xi'an said and she flashed Yara a toothy grin, as though every single bit of personal information she wielded was some kind of victory. As though she could prove her relationship with Mando had somehow been more intimate than anything that existed between Mando and Yara.

"Is that true Mando? Were you always paranoid?" Mayfeld mocked Xi'an's flirty tone. Despite his mocking tone he kept his eyes sharp and stayed focused on the job at hand.

In between one blink and the next Yara turned. "On the left," Yara warned.

There was a loud slam on Mayfeld's left and he jumped, his eyes snapping first to the prisoner who had startled him and then back to Yara. "Don't go giving them ideas," he snarled angrily as the others laughed at his discomfort.

Mando and Yara however didn't laugh. Yara's senses were beginning to tingle as the tension in their group ramped up. Adrenaline flowed through her making the tips of her fingers tingle in anticipation and every blink held the potential for a warning. The others were all too distracted to notice that Yara's warning had been far too quiet for the prisoner to have heard, and came well before he had moved.

"Approaching control room. Make a left at the next juncture," Zero commanded.

Mando and Mayfeld cleared the next corner and a small droid skittered out around the corner. They both froze, waiting to see if the droid would report their presence as intruders.

Burg walked up to it. "What?" he mocked the others. "It's just a little mousey." He pulled his blaster, holding it behind his back. "Come here little mousey," he encouraged.

"Burg," Mayfeld warned, if the droid reported them it was all over.

The droid wheeled around, making an alarmed noise, and Burg shot it.

"Ah Burg, what are you doing?" Mayfeld snapped.

"What?" Burg asked with a careless shrug.

Yara closed her eyes and snapped them open a moment later. "Droids!" Yara called and she jumped back behind one of the pillars for cover. Xi'an looked at her like she was nuts, but the next second four security droids came around the corner.

"Intruder alert, open fire," they intoned. The droids blaster fire pinned them down in the hallway.

Mando was already in motion. He swung around, putting himself between the droids and Yara, using the beskar strapped to his body to shield her.

"We're too exposed here!" Xi'an cried, crouching behind Mayfeld.

"If they get a signal out, it's not gonna matter," Mayfeld called back, his blaster fire bouncing uselessly off the droid's armor.

Mando bent his head down so his helmet was near Yara's ear. "I'll go around," he told her in a low tone.

"Got it," Yara said and she slid forward, half under his arm and began laying down cover fire so Mando could slip away unnoticed.

"Mando let's go, aren't you supposed to be something special?" Mayfeld called and the others turned to see Yara standing by herself, firing at the droids.

"I knew it!" Mayfeld yelled. "I knew it!" he cried. "Your boyfriends a real piece of work," he snapped at Yara.

Yara smirked to herself. She could feel Mando approaching, and then Mayfeld would see. She could feel the electrically charged energy proceeding him as he came up behind the droids. She frowned for a moment as she also felt his rage. He was normally so in control.

Mando pulled out his beskar blade and charged the droids. He slid across the floor, slicing easily through the leg joint of the first, then he kicked a second one back and shot the third in the chest. The fourth turned to face him and Yara lifted her blaster and shot it directly in the central processing unit before it could fire at Mando. The droid dropped and Mayfeld turned to look at Yara in shock, it was an impossible shot to make using such a small blaster without a scope, but she was already lining up her next shot.

The second droid charged Mando and shoved him back against one of the cell doors, pushing him and the droid out of range. Yara continued to fire, to keep the others back from Mando as he fought. The droid punched at Mando, which he ducked, then tried to chop at his neck. He rolled his shoulder back, avoiding the strike with a tightly controlled movement.

Mando threw his Beskar knife and it landed in the lens of the droids visual processor. The droid staggered and turned, exposing it's back. Yara fired another single shot and hit the central processor again. In that time another of the droids recovered and hit Mando in the chest plate with it's blaster. Mando was thrown to the ground from the force of the blast. Yara fired at the droid that had hit him, but as long as he was facing her, her small blaster couldn't get through their armor.

Burg and Xi'an moved as though they would join the fight but Mayfeld waved them off. His head was cocked to the side as he watched Mando fight as though he were evaluating him. Mayfeld glanced back at Yara, there was something off about them, he just couldn't place it. He himself was one of the best sharpshooters to ever come out of the Imperial Academy, the shots she was making were impossible without a scoped rifle.

When the others didn't jump to help Mando rage rose in Yara's chest and she narrowed her eyes dangerously. She continued to fire, but it didn't stop the droids. Mando shot his grappling hook up into the neck of the droid who had shot him and jerked him forward, knocking the last droid down with it. Then he gave the cord a vicious jerk and the head of the droid flew back and almost hit Mayfeld and Xi'an as it clattered to the ground at their feet.

Two more security droids came down the hall. One fired at Mando, hitting him in the beskar again. Mando jerked and groaned. Just because the beskar held up didn't mean the percussion of the hit didn't hurt. He rolled up onto his knees and fired his flame thrower at the droids. The first went down, still on fire and Mando ripped the arm off one of the downed droids and began beating the last droid with it. The droid went down to it's knees and Mando activated the gun on the droid arm, firing a hole through the droids head large enough to put his fist through. The droid dropped to the ground and an oppressive silence hung heavily in the hallway as Mando stood amid the wreckage of the security team.

Yara stepped out from behind her pillar. She cocked her head to the side, letting her eyes flutter shut, and then snapped around and fired at one of the droids just as it began moving once more. Burg just laughed. Mayfeld and Xi'an stepped out from behind their cover. He looked over the wreckage and tried not to look as impressed as he felt.

"Be sure to clean up your mess," Mayfeld snapped as he stalked past Mando.

Xi'an gazed up into Mando's helmet as she passed him, her eyes were lit with bloodlust and desire. There had been a time when that would have excited him. Instead, he just sighed exhaustedly. He didn't want to deal with her right now. Mayfeld jogged around the corner and Mando gestured for Yara to go on ahead of him. He didn't like the idea of her bringing up the rear with no real protection now that the security droids had been activated. It was clear the other members of their team wouldn't be risking their necks to help one another.

"It seems your presence has been detected. Redirecting security alert away from your present position," Zero informed them.

They moved through the ship. The prisoners called out to them as they passed. Xi'an hissed at a few, but they mainly focused on moving quickly. They came around the corner and the last black blast door that protected the control room was in front of them.

"Z, open the door," Mayfeld instructed.

"But I am detecting an organic signature," Zero argued.

"Yeah, okay. All right. Just open the door!" Mayfeld snapped. He was on edge and he kept glancing around as though he expected another security detail to appear.

The door slid up and a man whirled around in his seat at the controls, pulling his blaster. "Stop!" he ordered, but when he saw the five of them a fine tremble started in his hand. "Just stop right there!"

Both Yara and Mando had their blasters pointed at him, but neither one of them wanted to shoot anyone. This man was an innocent. Just a young man trying to do his job. Wrong place, wrong time.

"Y-You put down the blasters right now," he gasped, stammering as he fought to save face.

Mando and Yara stood in the doorway while the other three fanned out into the room. The technician's breathing started coming in ragged pants as he moved his gun from one of them to another and another, uncertain who he should be aiming at, trying to decide which of them was the greatest threat. His eyes kept going from Mando to Burg. He had good instincts.

"Nice shoes," Mayfeld mocked, his tone carefully neutral as he slid into the room.

"Put down your blasters," the young technician said again.

"Matches his belt," Mayfeld said, clearly enjoying the fear he was instilling in the young man. He moved to the main computer and began typing.

Burg threw his head back and laughed.

Mando stepped further into the room. "There were only supposed to be droids on this ship," he said, pissed that once again the information and the job were changing. He never would have brought Yara on a job where innocents might be killed. There was no honor in that.

"Hang on, hang on, let's see here," Mayfeld called dismissively as he tapped into the computer. "Cell two-two-one," he told them. "All right," Mayfeld said calmly turning around. "Now for our well dressed friend."

The man jerked a small white box out of his belt and held it out threateningly. While the others didn't seem to know what it was, Mayfeld froze, tension entering his entire body. "Whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, Hey, hey," he called, trying to get the man to look him in the eye. "Easy egghead. Put that down. Put it down, come on," he soothed, but there was a tension to him now that promised violence.

"Easy," Mando said in a soothing growl and the man turned to glance towards him frantically. Mando's visor however was locked on Mayfeld, not the young technician.

"Put it down now!" Mayfeld snapped angrily, pulling a blaster.

"Easy!" Mando called, louder than Mayfeld.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Mando. It was impossible not to. Mayfeld's jaw tightened angrily. He didn't seem to like that no matter how much bluster he used he didn't come close to the natural Alpha vibes that Mando put out.

"Nobody has to get hurt here. Just calm down," Mando said firmly.

"What is that thing?" Burg asked stupidly from the door. He still didn't understand the dangerous turn their job had taken.

"It's a tracking beacon," Yara filled in. The tension in the room filled her senses and made her gift buzz along her skin. The man's fear called out to her. Almost as strong was Mayfeld's angry determination. Yara forced her eyes to stay open, to stay engaged in the moment. Overshadowing everything else in the room was the quiet strength of Din. It was like a bonfire at her back, somehow both soothing and warm and entirely destructive and dangerous. The sheer force of his personality was staggering.  

"He presses that thing, we're all done," Mayfeld said, taking a threatening step towards the man. "A New Republic attack team will hone in on that signal and blow us all to hell. Put it down!" Mayfeld shouted.

"Are you serious?" Xi'an hissed in disgust. She turned towards the terrified man and narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, I'm serious," Mayfeld said defensively.

Xi'an's eyes flickered to Mando, looking to him for some kind of guidance or maybe for him to take charge. It didn't go unnoticed by Mayfeld and his jaw tightened as he adjusted his grip on his blaster.

"You didn't think we needed to know that tiny detail?" Xi'an asked angrily.

"I didn't think we'd get to this point," Mayfeld snapped defensively.

"Yet here we are," Xi'an said sarcastically, and her eyes flickered once more to Mando, waiting.

Mayfeld's eyes filled with rage. "Are you questioning my managerial style, Xi'an?" Mayfeld demanded turning his blaster onto Xi'an.

Xi'an laughed in his face and gave him a mocking salute with one of her knives. "No, sir."

It surprised Yara to realize that if they were going to have an ally in all of this it was going to be the unhinged Twi'lek. There was a chance her history with Mando was going to save them. She had worked with him before, and clearly was used to him taking charge. There was a part of her that trusted him to make the decisions for the group far more than she trusted Mayfeld.

"Hey, hey," Mando called to the man, who was becoming increasingly more panicked as their group argued amongst themselves. "Listen to me, okay? Look," Mando said sliding his blaster away. It was an empty gesture. There were still three other blasters pointed at the man. "Hey, put it down," Mando told Burg. Burg sort of shrugged as though he didn't need his anyway and lowered it. Yara listened without hesitation.

Mayfeld however was continuing to be a problem. "Are you crazy?" he snapped.

The young man's eyes widened in fear and flickered in panic back and forth between Mando and Mayfeld. "Hey," Yara called gently, drawing his focus to her. "What's your name?" Yara asked the man.

He turned to her, his eyes wide with terror and pleading for some kind of salvation . "It's-it's Davan," he stammered.

Yara felt for him. He had been put in an impossible situation. "Davan," she said his name soothingly. Just the sound of it on her lips seemed to draw his focus inexplicably tighter onto her. She drew in a deep breath and silently willed him to listen to her and be calm. "We're not here for you okay," she told him.

"You're not here for me," he agreed in an odd tone.

Yara wasn't sure why he had repeated her words in such a strange way, but she wasn't going to question it. Trusting Din to watch her back she focused all of her will on him. "We're here for a prisoner. If you let us go about our job, you can walk away with your life," she promised him.

"I can walk away-" he started to repeat, a strange glazed look in his eyes and the hand holding his blaster started to lower.

"No he won't," Mayfeld snapped, cocking his blaster and taking a menacing step forward.

And just like that the spell Yara had seemed to weave on the young man snapped. A painful throb started behind Yara's eye and she winced.

The terror returned to Davan's eyes and he whirled around to face Mayfeld, his blaster pointing at him. Mando drew his blaster and pointed it at Mayfeld, just as Mayfeld pointed a second blaster at him. Things had gone from bad to worse.

"You realize what you're gonna bring down on us?" Mando challenged.

"You think I care about that?" Mayfeld asked.

"We're not killing anybody, you understand," Mando growled. Any lesser, or perhaps smarter man would have wilted beneath the flat, dangerous tone.

Mayfeld was neither of those things. He had gone too far and he refused to cede control. He had a job to do. "Get that blaster out of my face Mando," Mayfeld ordered.

"I can't do that," he said.

"GET THAT BLASTER OUT OF MY FACE MANDO!" Mayfeld yelled, losing his calm. The gun over his shoulder activated and Yara drew her blaster and aimed it at Burg's chest just as he pulled his blaster to point at her.

"Don't," Mando snarled, his voice more dangerous, as he aimed his flame thrower at Burg. His protective instincts were demanding he killed Burg first to keep Yara safe even knowing that Mayfeld was the most dangerous man in the room. Burg snarled and pulled another weapon, this one he pointed at Mando.

"Wait, no!" Yara called a second before Xi'an's wrist flipped off a knife that sank into Davan's chest. The man collapsed to the floor. Dead.

"Would you both just shut up," Xi'an growled climbing to her feet. She cast an uncertain look towards Yara, as though she were trying to figure her out, but then stepped over to the body and pulled her knife out of him. Any thoughts she had about Yara saying something before she threw the knife totally forgotten.

"Crazy Twi," Mayfeld said, trying to make himself look composed and in control once more. "I had it under control," he growled.

Xi'an laughed as she wiped Davan's blood on his blue uniform. "Yeah. Looked like it," she chuckled and her eyes cut to Mando. She held his gaze and ran her tongue over her teeth. "Mando's never been very into control or being controlled," she laughed, her eyes sparkling as she met Yara's gaze. Whatever she saw there made the Twi smirk. "Or maybe that's changed."

"Shut up!" Mayfeld called to Xi'an. He moved over to the fallen body, standing over the top of the tracking beacon. "Was that thing blinking before?" he asked urgently. "Was it?"

Their comms activated. "Zero to Mayfeld, Zero to Mayfeld."

"What?" Mayfeld asked.

"I've detected a New Republic distress signal homing in on your location. You have approximately twenty minutes," the droid told them.

Xi'an shrugged unapologetically and flashed a sly smile. "We only need five," she said.

"Let's go, let's go move, move, move," Mayfeld called and they all took of running down the hallway.

Yara gazed down at Davan's body one last time as guilt flooded her, she had been so close to being able to save him. He had been listening to her.

Din stepped up and closed his hand on her bicep. The smooth leather of his gloves sliding over the bare skin. He squeezed her arm gently and when she lifted her violet eyes to meet his, he jerked his chin towards the door. They had to go.

The two of them tore off running after the others. They came around the corner to see Burg charge a security droid. He picked it up in his arms and body slammed it down on the ground. Sparks and parts went flying. Then as another one came around the next corner he threw it at the next one, causing them both to explode in a massive fireball.

They found cell 221 and Mayfeld slid the key into the terminal. "Z, open it up!" Mayfeld called.

"You have fifteen minutes remaining," Zero warned them.

"Come on, come on, Open it up!" he called impatiently.

The terminal swiveled and the lock clicked and the door slid up slowly to reveal a dark cell. The others stood back, grinning triumphantly.

All but Mando.

Yara watched as Mando took a step forward, his shoulders tight with tension as he recognized the figure who emerged from the dark cell. The dark buzzing along her skin told her all she needed to know about the male they were releasing.

"Qin," Mando growled as he gazed at the last creature he wanted to see.

The Twi'lek climbed slowly to his feet. His movements were tightly controlled, like a great cat stalking it's prey. Yara swallowed. Her eyes flickered over the group. Mayfeld put on airs and pretended to be a tough leader, but this man was every bit the Alpha that Mando was. He cracked his neck and advanced on them.

"Funny, the man who left me behind is now my savior," he said baring his teeth at Mando.

Unable to help himself Mando shifted, sidestepping so his shoulder was protectively in front of Yara.

Qin noticed, his hard eyes flickered over Yara. He didn't look at her like a human, he catalogued her as a potential tool he could use. A way to get at the otherwise untouchable Mandalorian. Qin bared his teeth at her then turned his attention to Mando. He stalked towards him, stepping up in his space, and glaring into the reflective helmet. "Man-do," he dragged out his name.

Mando had target fixation. It was his own fault and he would admit it. His entire focus was on the Twi who had every reason to want him dead. Qin however was more likely to punish him. Had he known, had he thought to ask, he never would have brought Yara anywhere near Qin. The Twi'lek was more insane than his sister and was likely to torture Yara in front of him as punishment for Mando's betrayal.

Unable to tear his focus away from Qin, he never saw Burg coming. Burg hit him from the side. His powerful fist crushed into Mando's chest plate hard enough to knock the wind out of him and send him flying back into the cell. Xi'an did a fancy spin kick and sent Yara sailing in behind him.

Yara landed on top of him, their limbs tangling together as the door slid back down. Mando tried to fire off a shot, but the door was too low and the blaster shot bounced off the shielded walls ricocheting around them. Mando rolled over on top of Yara, covering her with his body. Finally, the shot struck his beskar and he absorbed it with a grunt.

"Brother!" Xi'an cried excitedly.

"Sister!" Qin called.

"Attacks on the way. He's already dead meat. Let's go!" Mayfeld called.

Xi'an hesitated, her gaze resting on the door.

"Come on!" her brother called. "It's better this way. He betrayed us!" Qin encouraged.

Xi'an nodded. "You deserve this!" she called. "I hope your bitch is dead!" '

"Let's go!" Mayfeld called loudly.

Their footsteps faded.

Mando rolled off of Yara. "You all right?" he asked.

"You weigh a ton," she grumbled as he pulled her to her feet beside him. The two of them looked over the cell but there was nothing for them to use to escape. They were trapped.

"Well, this is bad," Yara muttered. All Mando could do was nod in agreement.

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