Holy cats you guys. I just finished the season 2 finale and I don't even know what to say!! I won't say anything because spoilers but wow! I was super inspired to write so here you are...

Happy Reading!

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Yara tried not to notice the tension rolling off of Cara as the three of them walked back to the village. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up like it was low level static she couldn't ignore. She was normally more careful not to reveal what she could do in quite that obvious of a manner. It tended to lead to people staring at her like Cara was now. Like she was some kind of freak.

To try and distract herself she looked up at Mando. "What are you going to tell them?" she asked jerking her chin towards the village. There wasn't a lot of time to decide.

Mando heard something off in Yara's voice. He hesitated and stopped, turning his helmet to look in her face. Yara looked tired and her eyes flickered back to Cara when she stopped, but she faced him. Mando resisted the urge to glance at Cara. Yara had probably saved the shock troopers life, but he knew it could be a little disorienting at first when you tried to sort it all out in your head. He hadn't realized how comfortable he had become with her warnings until now.

Mando shrugged. "The truth," he told her.

Yara pinched her lips together but nodded. She was still on edge. She rubbed at her temple as though she had a headache.

"Come on," he said jerking his chin. "Let's go get this over with," then he reached down and lightly touched her elbow so she would walk up next to him instead of behind him. It was a casual touch,
one that seemed so natural he didn't even think about it or realize he had done it.

When they came out of the trees they saw that the whole village was waiting for their return. Mando stepped up onto the porch of one of the main buildings that provided him with a little height over the crowd. He turned to address them. "Bad news," he said without preamble. "You can't live here anymore."

Yara gaped at him as the entire village erupted in shock. She couldn't believe he had just blurted that out.

Cara shared a look of disbelief with Yara before she leaned towards Mando. "Nice bedside manner," Cara hissed.

"You think you can do better?" he challenged.

"Can't do much worse," she muttered and she stepped forward, drawing the attention of the crowd back to her.

Mando gratefully took a step back and leaned against the side of the hut next to Yara. She was still distracted, but she seemed better.

"I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, but there are no other options," Cara said gravely.

"You took the job!" one of the men cried out loudly.

"That was before we knew about the AT-ST," Cara said defensively.

"What is that?" the same man asked.

Cara crossed her arms over her chest and scowled down at the crowd. "The armored walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn't tell us."

The crowd began murmuring again, all calling for help.

"We have no where to go," Omera said.

Yara took pity on Cara at that point and stepped up next to the much taller woman. "Sure you do," Yara said. "This is a big planet...I mean, I've seen smaller," she allowed.

"My grandparents seeded these ponds, it took generations!" Stoke called up to her.

"I understand, I do," Cara said holding her hands up. "but there are only three of us," Cara said taking back control of the conversation.

"No there's not," Stoke argued. "There's at least twenty here."

"I mean fighters, be realistic."

"We can learn!" "Give us a chance!" they exclaimed.

"I have seem that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a matter of minutes," Cara growled.

"We're not leaving," Omera said sternly after a moment.

Cara shook her head sadly. "You cannot fight that thing."

"Unless we show them how," Mando said in a low tone. He turned his helmet to meet Yara's gaze.

Yara stared into the dark surface of Mando's helmet for a long time before she drew in a deep breath and nodded her agreement. She didn't want to abandon these people either. "We'll show them how," she told Cara.

"All right," Cara said holding her hands up in surrender. "We start training in the morning," she snapped impatiently to the crowd.

The villagers cheered. Cara just shook her head in disgust. They were going to get themselves killed.

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Later that evening Cara, Yara and Mando were all sitting around the fire, keeping watch, eating their dinner and drinking spotchka. Or at least Yara and Cara were eating and drinking. Mando was sitting off to the side, keeping his eyes on the treeline while the women talked. Whatever tension Cara had been holding onto earlier had melted away after her second tankard of spotchka. Yara had gratefully accepted the Spotchka to help chase away the headache that had persisted since the woods.

"So how long have you two been together?" Cara asked after a while.

"Oh, we're not like together-together," Yara corrected quickly.

Cara looked back and forth between the two of them in disbelief.

"We're just-" Yara started to say but honestly she didn't really know how to describe their relationship. Her eyes flickered helplessly to Mando.

"Partners," Mando intoned.

Cara still didn't look like she believed them. "How did you meet up? You two and the kid don't seem like a very likely bounty hunter team."

Mando turned his chin back to the trees. Clearly he had no intention of telling a story that he didn't consider to be his and he was done with small talk.

"I was kidnapped by some ex-imperials about a year ago," Yara explained.

Anger flashed in Cara's eyes. "Why?" she asked bluntly.

Yara just shrugged. "I don't know," she said honestly. "They seemed to think I had useful abilities. They kept me locked up, a couple weeks ago the little one showed up for the same treatment," she said.

Mando couldn't help noticing how pointedly Yara was leaving out what had been done to her there. He supposed he didn't blame her for not wanting to discuss it in detail.

"Next thing I knew he was charging through the door," Yara said jerking her chin towards The Mandalorian.

"He saved you?" Cara asked.

Yara snorted and shot Mando an impish smile. "Hardly. Shot his way in to get the kid with no exit strategy. We all escaped together. Been together ever since," she said.

Cara nodded, thinking about what Yara had said and the conversation lulled for a moment.

Mando turned away from the tree line to look at Yara and asked the question that had been bothering him. "Why were those Imps all so afraid of you?" He asked.

Yara turned to Mando and smiled, the firelight glittering in her eyes. It felt like some kind of victory to have him ask her a question for a change. She tipped up the bottle and took another long swig of Spotchka. "Why indeed?" she teased and she wiggled her fingers at him.

He shook his head at her antics, although he was glad to see her relax and smile.

"You don't seem that tough," Cara slurred. "Pretty fast though..." she added thoughtfully as she thought back on their time in the woods. Yara had drawn her blaster in the time it took both her and the Mandalorian to turn around. Cara cocked her head as she stared at the other woman. Why would a Mandalorian keep her with her if she wasn't useful. Cara felt like she was missing something. She had been freaked out in the woods, but enough time and spotchka had passed that it was just a hazy memory.

Yara smiled as she took another drink then passed the bottle back to Cara. "It took a long time for the Imps to figure out how to keep me contained," Yara told her and then she turned to Mando. "Most of them thought I was a witch."

Cara snorted loudly. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Mando cocked his head to the side. He normally respected someone's privacy, but he couldn't help the questions he had about Yara's past. "Where did you learn to shoot like that?" he asked. What he really wanted to ask was if it was related to the flashes she claimed to see. The abilities they thought she had. If she really could see the future like the Imps thought.

"You mean assuming it isn't witchcraft?" Yara teased.

"Yes," Mando replied in a clipped tone.

The teasing smile stilled on Yara's face and she looked down into her hands. "My dad," she finally said. Then in the interest of being totally honest with him she continued. "Well, my dad taught me how to shoot...shooting 'like that' well..." Yara just shrugged a faroff look in her eye. "Honestly I'm not sure," she confessed. "I've just always had a knack for it."

"Soldier?" Cara asked.

"Bounty Hunter?" Mando put in.

"Sorcerer," Yara said with a giggle. Then she sniffed. "No, he was a smuggler and a gun runner...I grew up on a ship. Honesty he taught me more about fixing ships than shooting."

"You're a mechanic?" Mando asked in surprise. Here has had wasted her skills making her scrape the cooling crystals.

Yara shrugged. "I can fix a thing or two if push comes to shove."

He nodded. Somehow instead of making sense it all just added to the greater mystery that was Yara.

Cara sniffed. "We should get some sleep, dawn will come early," she said standing up. "Sleep well," she called to Mando and Yara and she shuffled off to her hut.

"We should hit the rack," Mando said after a few quiet moments of staring down into the flames.

Yara stood and followed Mando back to their hut. It felt strangely intimate following behind him to their hut. Being on the ship had felt different, there was an element of privacy with them each having their own quarters with doors. Here it was just them, there was no place to hide.

Mando stepped inside the hut and held the door. He glanced back when Yara wasn't immediately behind him. He frowned under his helmet. "Are you coming?" he asked.

Yara nodded, although she was chewing on her lip as she slipped into the hut moving quickly past him.

He wasn't sure what had changed, but suddenly she seemed uncomfortable and he wasn't sure what he had done. He quickly replayed everything that was said, but he couldn't figure out what he had done wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have asked her the questions. He should have respected her privacy.

Yara moved across the hut and peered down into the small crib Omera had brought for the child. He was still fast asleep curled up under his blanket. She smoothed a hand along his back and felt the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

Mando moved over to his side of the hut and sat down on his pallet, resting his hands on his thighs. Yara glanced over at Mando and quickly turned back to her side of the hut. There was little to no privacy and when she shrugged out of her jacket leaving her in her one shoulder crop top Mando quickly turned away. He moved to lay back and made it a point to stare up at the thatched roof. He had lived a lifetime making himself more imposing and intimidating. Now, he was struggling with making himself seem harmless.

Yara glanced over at Mando, but he had already laid down on his cot. She turned out the lamp and slipped under her own covers. She shivered as the cool of the night settled in. She wished she had put on her long sleeved shirt, but it was in her satchel across the room, and she didn't want to move around and make a fuss.

"Mando," she said after a few moments.

She heard him turn his head towards her and took it for the acknowledgment of her question.

"How are you going to sleep in your helmet?"

Mando was surprised by her concern. "I've done it a lot," he promised her. "I'll manage," he could practically feel Yara thinking from across the room but he waited her out.

"Maybe tomorrow we could hang up some blankets or something so you could you know, rest comfortably," she suggested.

Over the years Mando had met a lot of people who tried to convince him his creed was wrong, but he had never met someone who wanted to make him more comfortable. Mando cleared his throat because he wasn't sure how to respond to her concern. "I'll-" he started to say and stopped, uncharacteristically flustered. "Once we make it through tomorrow," he said. "Then we'll look into it." He told her.

"Are you worried about tomorrow?" Yara asked. It was easier to ask her questions staring into the dark of the room when she didn't have to look into that expressionless helmet.

"I think this is a bigger job than these people realize, but I also think our plan is good."

"I get the impression you wouldn't have agreed to it if you hadn't," Yara said. Mando could hear the smile in her voice.

"Would you have been dissuaded?" He countered.

Yara couldn't be sure, but she thought maybe he was teasing her. She snorted. "Not likely," she confessed unrepentantly. Then after a beat she responded more seriously. "These seem like genuinely good people. I-I don't see how I could turn my back if I could help them," she told him.

Mando laid in silence, staring up into the darkness wondering how someone like Yara could be filled with so much goodness and light. The Mandalorians followed a creed, a code that didn't allow them to turn their back on the weak. It was something he was raised to believe and he was honor bound to do. Yara however just was. If she had happened upon this village alone he had no doubt she would have stayed to help them.

"You care," Mando said gently.

"So do you," Yara shot back a little defensively. She didn't like feeling as though Mando thought her compassion was a weakness.

"You must have been a terrible gun runner," he observed.

Yara snapped her head towards him and glared. In the dark, through his visor he could see her but he knew she couldn't see him. The dark provides a second, safer boundary. He laughed again for the second time since they met and Yara couldn't help but chuckle with him despite the fact that it was at her expense. Instead she considered it a victory, although this time she didn't point it out.

They didn't speak anymore, but after that Yara felt comfort from his closeness instead of wariness. She rolled over onto her side and snuggled under her blankets.

"Good night Mando," she called to him.

"Good night Yara."

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Yara woke covered in sweat, her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the nightmare still fresh in her mind. She pushed herself to her feet, but the hut felt too enclosed. She gasped as though she had been running and paced back and forth across the floor as she fought to get control of her breathing. She pressed a hand against her mouth, trying to stay as silent as possible so she wouldn't wake Mando and the child.

"Yara?" Mando's sleep gruff voice called across the hut.

She ran her hands up and down her arms as she shivered. Her sweat was drying on her bare skin and now she was chilled. She glanced towards Mando, feeling guilty for waking him. She could see the glint of his helmet and there was a blaster in his hand.

"It's okay," she told him, but her voice was trembling. "It's-"
She started to say, trying to explain to him that the enemy wasn't here. It was locked in her mind.

"Nightmares?" Mando asked gently. He slid his blaster away and slowly stood. He could hear her ragged breathing and he didn't want to startle her any more than she already was. He stepped past her and sat on the edge of her cot, leaving room for her to sit with him.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep. Sorry I woke you. I mean-" Yara tripped over her words as she fought to form coherent sentences. She was still rattled from the vivid nightmares and she hadn't expected to have to be composed in front of Mando so soon.

"I don't ever sleep well outside the Razor Crest," he confessed casually. He turned his helmet to look pointedly down at the spot next to him.

Too exhausted to argue with him, Yara sat down, feeling like she was invading his space, even though it was her bed. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I just-" she started to say but she wasn't sure what she would have said.

"Would it help for you to tell me about them?" Mando suggested gently.

He was terrible at reassuring people. He didn't know how to make someone feel better. He had vague memories of when he was a boy, before he was taken by the Death Watch, before his world fell apart, when his mother would sit beside him in the dark and he would tell her his nightmares. It had always made him feel better.

"Tell me," he pushed, this time more gently as he tipped his helmet so he could look down into her face.

Yara stared down at her hands as she tangled her fingers together nervously in her lap. She shook her head. "It's nothing specific. Most of it is memories really. My family being murdered, and all those days in the lab," she forced herself to snort as though it didn't matter.

She didn't mention the flashes she couldn't explain, the ones that weren't memories, but things she had never seen before. The images were drowning in emotions she didn't understand and didn't always match the scenes that played out behind her closed eyes. A river of lava - fear but somehow relief too. The inside of a white prison cell - frustration and impatience. A leather gloved hand holding hers - comfort and maybe something more that seemed too much for her tired brain to handle.

The Spotchka had made the flashes worse, just like the drugs had for the Imps. She should have known better than to drink as much as she had. She fidgeted with her fingers and fought to keep herself from blinking too much. If she didn't blink she wouldn't see the flashes.

Mando could practically feel the fear and tension radiating through her body. He didn't know how to tell her that she was safe here with him. He reached down and moving very slowly he laid his leather glove over Yara's, stilling her fidgeting. He hoped it would help calm her and help her focus and not scare her more.

Yara froze as she looked down where his worn, leather glove covered her hand. The palm was black, the fingers were a softer, carmel leather. It was just like in her dream, but not quite. She frowned down at their hands, as though mesmerized by the sight and she closed her fingers around his. Now it was exactly like she saw in her dream.

"They tried to force my ability, my instincts. They tried to make me see the future," Yara said, her voice breaking with emotions. "But I've never been able to make it work on command. As if something like that were even possible," she said with a disgusted shake of her head. "It's just a feeling I get, a nudge, or a flash. When I couldn't do it on command with mundane things like flashcards and books...they tried other things." She told him hollowly. Her throat was suddenly dry and she wasn't sure if she was getting enough air. She pinched her eyes shut and fought to regain control of her body.

Mando knew what she wasn't saying. They had hurt her. His hand instinctively tightened around hers. He wanted to tell himself it was meant to reassure her, but the reality was it took everything in him to contain the need to go back and kill them all again. The need for action and violence radiated through him, but he forced himself to stay completely still. He didn't want to scare her.

"They said they had to test me..." she dragged off. "So they used pain," she sucked in a breath and swiped at her face with her other hand as she fought to keep control of the emotions welling up. "Between the pain and the drugs, they found what they thought was the perfect combination," she said bitterly.

Mando didn't say anything to her great relief. There wasn't anything to say. They all had horrible things that happened to them. If he had acted like he pitied her or like she was a victim she wouldn't be able to keep going. She didn't want to be broken. And she certainly didn't want him to treat her like she was as vulnerable as she felt in that moment.

They sat together in silence for a long time. The warm breeze blowing through the hut and the silence of the peaceful night spent in each other's company did more to soothe Yara's wounds than any words. Slowly Yara's head dipped down and rested against his shoulder with a comfortable sigh as she fell asleep. Mando tightened his grip on her hand a moment, then he released her hand and lifted his arm. Sleepily, Yara snuggled in under his arm against his chest plate, sighing contentedly as she tried to get closer. He reached down with his other hand and lifted her blanket, pulling it up her body.

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I hope you enjoyed the update!!!