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Hebe's breathing was ragged, she was sprinting with Din and Cara who were either side of her, they too looked slightly out of breath. The footsteps of the gigantic walker thundered threateningly from a safe distance behind them but she had to admit, this thing was fast. The three had beat up a small group of raiders and pissed them off, Hebe sang praises to herself for not wearing armour, she couldn't begin to imagine how heavy and difficult it was for Din to run. They dodged the claps of blaster shots coming from the AT-ST as they spotted the tree line on the distance. The red pulsing light reminded Hebe of her surroundings making her aware of the trees she had to weave around.
Darting through the fog all three of them slid and hopped over the protective wooden barrier, the girl noticed that she had a few bruises forming on her knuckles and a tiny but deep bleeding slit on her jaw. "This is it! Once that thing steps in the pond, it's goin' down!" Cara yelled, her voice cracking. The whole of them could hear the snapping of multiple trees, the ground vibrated under their feet, the villagers tensed up, guns at the ready. "Weapons ready!" Hebe shouted over the noise, grabbing her own blaster and pointing it at the ominously dark treeline.
She watched with a fierce stare as two red lights glared, swaying through the trees and into sight. "Just a few more steps," Din whispered to them reassuringly. However, the AT-ST wavered at the pond and to everyone's horror, it stepped backwards. "It stopped." It was silent as the AT-ST loomed, suddenly a blinding white light snapped on and the trio ducked. "Get down! Get down!" Mando hissed. Thankfully all of them did except for two, the light stayed on them for a few seconds before a blaster shot rang through their ears and hit a nearby hut. Large figures darted out from between the AT-ST's legs shouts bellowing through to the rest. They immediately opened fire at Cara's instruction.
Many of the brutes were shot down as soon as they entered sight, Hebe and Din each taking turns to shoot at them. Many things crashed down behind them at the walker's fire but only shot back desperately, red flashed into their eyes, fog looming eerily over the ponds only added to the villagers' fear. "We gotta get that thing to step forward," Din said hurriedly.
"I'm thinking," Cara turned back to the mess in front of them. "New plan."
"What do you have in mind?" He responded calmly.
"Give me the pulse rifle," Din seemed to hesitate but Hebe urged him with a quick nod, she had taken a quick look inside of the woman's head. She found zero bad intention. "We'll cover you," the girl nodded, turning back with her blaster. They both watched worriedly as Cara took off running directly into the monster machine's line of vision. They kept to their promise, shooting down whatever poor soul approached her, Cara dodged getting incinerated and hopped into one of the ponds. Din uttered some words of encouragement as she twisted from her hiding spot and shot at it.
A mass of villagers charged out to take on the raiders, taking them down one by one at a steady rate. Their hearts were gushing, Hebe's hands twitched as the AT-ST stopped moving forwards again shooting continually at the spot Cara was in. The blood pulsed into the girl's brain like she was having a mini aneurysm, she could hear her heart thumping her ears feeling like they were stuffed with cotton. Her eyes flickered closed as all the noises seemed to drift away much like a leaf would in a stream. All her senses felt numb but she felt her hands instinctively take position in an x shape, her shoulder grew increasingly warm much to her relief as if a gentle hand was on it. Her fingertips were ice to the touch, her hair dropped down back onto her shoulders, being snapped out of the day dream-like state and back into the reality before her eyes. The AT-ST had been pulled into the pond as planned the girl snatched the detonator from Mando and he yelled out in resistance. She planted it on the head of the fallen machine.
"On your left!" She slid into the pond beside a grinning Cara as a bright mix of oranges and yellows erupted into the chill air, pieces flying everywhere. She'd blown it up. They both breathed out in satisfaction shivering lightly at the cool water. "Damn. Was that the plan?" Hebe chuckled as she vaguely remembered Cara shooting the eye out of the AT-ST, the villagers cheered out in triumph, "Something like that."
Cara helped the other girl out of the water were Mando had already jogged over to them. After everything managed to calm down Hebe had immediately got to the child that giggled upon spotting her through the crowd of relieved adults. She picked him up as his little arms reached for her, resting the child on her hip and sighing. She left Cara and the villagers to drink and celebrate and almost as soon as she came through the archway of the barn door she was tugged by her free arm, placing the child down she faced whoever had touched her.
A tall figure, beskar armour that was tainted with black smudge marks, he assessed her carefully and sat her on the bed gently, kneeling sternly before her. "What the hell were you thinking?" Din almost hissed in anger, but not a wave of aggressive anger, his heart was skipping beats as he gazed sorrowfully at the cuts and gashes scattering across her body. "What?"
"Racing out at that thing like that. You could've gotten shot," his head tilted. She only shook her head and let her gaze hang low, he fumbled for medical supplies in the decently sized duffle bag he had given her. Pulling out the disinfectant and focused on the deeper wounds, after using some of her bacta patches he shuffled closer. He stared down at his gloves for a good few seconds but eventually pulled them off, Hebe saw this and turned her head away slightly out of respect.
"It's fine, you can see my hands as long as it's not my face," his deep voice cut through the silence as if she wasn't already ice-cold, a shiver ran down her spine. And it wasn't because she was cold. She brought her legs up to her chest as his warm calloused hands met with her skin she felt the skin of her jaw burn as he disinfected it and used a small plaster, peeling it perfectly onto the cut. His hands lingered for a few seconds, it accidentally brushed across her hands that were on top of her knees, flinching slightly at the drastic drop in her temperature. "You should sleep," he hummed as he leaned past her to place a thin blanket onto her shoulders. "Only if you do," her dry voice cracked slightly as he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. Hebe stood and moved to snatch a piece of wood away from the child's hand, delicately placing him in his cot.
They had been sleeping on different sides of the slightly wider than a twin-sized bed, a small pillow between them, Din didn't take off his helmet, only his armour to sleep in the clothes underneath. He slowly stripped off the different pieces as she fell back onto the bed taking the blanket down with her. She faced the wall and only closed her eyes when she felt her bed sink beside her but only a little closer than normal. Curling into herself she heard a quiet raspy chuckle in her ear. "Goodnight," he mumbled, leaning back to his pillow.
"Goodnight, Din," he didn't even acknowledge the small smile that rested on his lips as he let himself drift away into sleeps clutches.
