Disclaimer: I just own my OCs. Pls don't swat me Disney.

Chapter 1: The Favor

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"Want some soup?" The Mandalorian inquired with his blaster pointed at his opponent's face.

The opponent was a fully muscled woman, a warrior. Some kind of veteran from the war, he could tell by the Alliance Starbird insignia under her left eye. At least it wasn't Imperial. He had enough of them back in Nevarro. This was someone he had to be wary of if the pain in his head and ribs wasn't proof of her physical prowess. She spoke, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"You're a Mandalorian?" The big woman said. Her eyes wandered over the shiny beskar armor, sparking faint memories of the recent war.

They were sitting inside the cantina at the same table he was in before their skirmish. The former bounty hunter tensed at how she said it. More of a statement than a question like she already knew.

"What of it?"

The house proprietor bought two more bowls of soup to the table. The big woman took the bowl and sipped a bit of the broth, she redirected her eyes somewhere to her right.

"It's nothing. Your kind has become a rarity."

She couldn't see it but he narrowed his eyes, the way she said that too sounded like she was hiding something.

The green child sitting in between them made gurgles of appreciation as he sipped his own soup, cutting the tension that was in the air.

"I'm Cara Dune, ex-Rebel Alliance Shock Trooper," she introduced herself by indicating to the striped tattoo on her right bicep. "Saw most of my action mopping up after Endor. Mostly ex-Imperial Warlords . . ."

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Cara sauntered out of the cantina after bidding goodbye to the Mandalorian after deeming him not a threat. She spent the day challenging Sorgan locals to petty fights or helping them out for spare change. She did it mostly to try and forget what happened during the war and to bask in her retirement.

In the evening she headed to the makeshift camp she had set up in the forest. She sat down against a tree, legs stretched, ankles crossed and pulled out a banged-up holovid viewer from her pack. Her other hand held her blaster protectively since she was out in the open with relatively no cover. Just an old habit she picked up in the war, expecting Imps to ambush her in her sleep.

She activated the holovid, the image was long distorted but the audio was still intact.

A woman's voice yelled over the continuous sound of blaster shots and people fighting in the background.

"Cara! Cara! I just saved your sorry ass so you better get healed up and rejoin the fight! I'm taking the rest of the platoon straight to these Imps. Gotta give them hell and meet their Maker right?"

Cara let out a long long sigh. The holovid continued.

"After this shit show is over, you owe me a drink for what I did today! It's not every day I save the asses of people I sort of like!"

Cara could hear the smugness through the broken holovid and let out a small smile.

"See you on the other side! Lu, over and out."

Lu. Goddamn Lu. It must have been three or so years since she last saw her, surrounded by a pile of dead Imps, swinging down her blades with cold hatred. Not a day went by that Cara didn't think about her planet, her family, and of Lu. They had butted heads at first but soon formed a strong sister bond. Cara thought about the Mandalorian she met today. She slightly regretted his departure since she claimed dibs on Sorgan first. She should've hired his bounty hunter services to track down the little trouble maker that was occupying her memories. Yeah, Lu would've liked the mysterious Mandalorian. They were alike in quite a few ways.

She didn't hear the footsteps of a lone warrior encroaching upon her little setup as she was swept up in her thoughts.

A pouch of credits landed at her feet, clinking together as they did so. Cara startled by the sound, took her hand holding the blaster from under the pack and aimed it at the visitor.

The familiar sight of the Mandalorian's armor glinted warmly from the campfire.

"Ready for round two?"

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The Mandalorian and Cara Dune were busy loading up the Razor Crest after departing from the village. The frog-eating child sat on one of the crates inside the gunship watching the warriors go about their heavy lifting work.

The duo was hired to drive out Klatooinian raiders that repeatedly pillaged the village for their krill. Driving them out successfully, they stayed to help the villagers rebuild their homes. Peace never lasts long as another bounty hunter with a tracking fob had located them. Cara had dispatched the Kubaz bounty hunter that was after the Child. In order to ensure the safety of the village, the Mandalorian decided to part the backwater planet and its residents with the Child in tow. Seeing this as an opportunity, Cara escorted them back to the Razor Crest.

"I need a favor. Especially since I pretty much saved your goblin kid."

He heard her but didn't stop as he continued taking crates inside the gunship. "Figured you wanted something since you were adamant about providing an escort."

She was unfazed at his blunt tone. "If you're out there and come close to Numidian Prime, I have an old war buddy I need you to do a wellness check for me."

Hearing this made him pause and turn with a slight inquisitive tilt to his head.

"Actually." She took out a pouch with some credits and tossed it to him. "Drag her ass back here. I think it's high time she took a bit of a spotchka break."

"You're hiring me for a bounty?"

"Isn't that what you were doing before anyways?"

She wasn't wrong. The small number of credits the villagers split between him and Cara wasn't even enough for fuel these days. The amount she gave him would last for a few weeks for him and the kid while trying to hide from bounty hunters. Surely Cara's favor would be easy enough to see through.

"Seems like a great place for a war veteran to retire." He said sarcastically.

Cara gave him that same look when they first talked in the cantina.

"I had intel that she's been using it as a home base of sorts. Apparently, she gathers a lot of her own intel from the colorful sort of people that only visit Numidian Prime."

"So then, you're retiring out here so why you're sticking your neck out for this person?" He pressed.

"I call her Lu. I owe her a life debt. One of our drops almost went sideways. Shrapnel makes a great dinner. If she didn't help me when she did, I wouldn't be standing here. Last time I saw her, she was cutting down those Imps like nothing. After that, I woke up in a Medcenter. She was gone like the wind and left nothing behind except for a holovid to yours truly."

Cara looked towards the direction of the village, her forehead creased and arms crossed.

"She is still alive out there. Her hatred for the Imps is as great as mine. Last I heard, she became some sort of underground mercenary. That's why she's on Numidian Prime. With the intel she gathers, she hops planet after planet wiping out lingering pockets of Imp forces if she catches wind of them."

"You have no fob." The Mandalorian was curious yet cautious. Cara seemed to have this person in high regard. He would be lying to himself if he wasn't curious to see the woman that saved the seasoned war veteran. He has grown to respect her when they were raising hell those few weeks ago.

"Nope," popping the p as her head did a little shook.

"How would I - "

"You can't miss her," she cut him off. She's a lot like you in a way." Her hand gestured to his being.

"Shiny blue . . . armor, fights well with twin vibro-arbir blades, likes to wear ponchos for some reason. She's also like a cactus, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. Don't tell her I said that but you'll get along fantastically."

She continued unloading the sled. "I don't know what others call her by these days. I sort of swindled her name out of her. So you might not want to mention that - she might kill you and then me." Cara let out a breathless chuckle from the exertion of carrying the supplies.

"She sounds like trouble already." He sighed dryly.

"That she is. Take some of the credits and buy a couple of meiloorun melons, that will make her soften up to your equally prickly personality too." The veteran huffed over her shoulder unknowingly making the Mandalorian flinch at the mention of that fruit.

Cara finished loading the heaviest crates into the Razor Crest. She walked back to the repulsorlift sled and turned to the Mandalorian.

"Well then, until our paths cross again." Her muscled forearm jutted upwards towards him. She smiled at him and she knew he was probably doing the same under the bucket on his head.

"Until our paths cross." They respectfully clasped hands and shook on it, both of them content in having a new ally.

The Mandalorian watched Cara drive towards the village, out of his sight. He boarded the gunship along with the few remaining supplies with the hatch closing behind him. The Child was still sitting on one of the crates, entertained by the unscrewed ball from one of the console control levers. The Child cooed as he was picked up and the duo headed towards the cockpit to embark on a new destination.

The Mandalorian turned towards his young co-pilot.

"Ever tried meiloorun melons before? I once had a friend that made herself sick by eating a whole tree full of them."

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Notes:

Hell yeah, I'm amped to start writing for this fandom. Like all you guys, I fell in love with our sexy Mandalorian and the ever-adorable Baby Yoda. Our tragic boy needs a little lovin' so I hope to give him that. At the start of the chapter's blurb, there's a tag for sexual abuse and rape of a minor. I will never go into explicit detail but I thought a heads up is in order. There's a complete blurb/tags of this fic on my profile if you need that.

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