Chapter 7: The Breakout

*WHAM*

*THUD*

"Alright, get some water."

Cinder felt like her chest was about to explode and her arms were about to fall off. She had been at this for a half hour, and this was her first break. She didn't put the canteen down for at least five seconds. When she stopped drinking, she fell to the ground. "Is there a reason why I'm not using my Aura?" she asked the armored man standing above her.

"You need to be prepared to fight when it breaks on you," he answered.

Cinder stood up and looked at her hands, which had bruised knuckles. She had been practicing hand-to-hand combat with the Mandalorian for a few days now, they began when they left Kuroyuri. Every now and then, they would land far away from civilization and practice combat. "How did they feel?" Cinder asked, referring to the punches she threw at the Mandalorian's hands.

"You're getting faster," he noticed. "Not very strong, but fast. You'll get stronger once you start your official training."

Cinder began to heal her bruises with her Aura. Once they healed, she looked back at her trainer and got in a fighting position.

"Actually..." The Mandalorian pulled out his pistol. "I want you to try something else." He then gave Cinder the gun, which felt a little heavy in her hands. He walked into his ship and came out with an old soup can, which he placed on a log. "Try aiming at the can," he said.

Djarin stood behind Cinder as she lined up her shot. "A little higher," he suggested. Cinder moved the gun until it was lined up. "Okay, you need to keep a firm grip on it," Djarin said as he covered her ears. "Fire."

Cinder pulled the trigger and a red bolt flew above the can. The gun flew back and nearly hit her face.

"A firm grip," he reminded her. "And control the trigger press. Try again."

Cinder fired again, the grip she kept on the gun prevented it from moving close to her face. But her shot missed again. She growled in frustration.

"You came off the target to see where you hit it," Djarin observed. "Follow through your shot." Cinder looked back at him, confused by what he was saying. "After the shot, you come right back to your target. Don't come off the can to see where you hit it."

Cinder turned back to the can and lifted the blaster. Right as Djarin covered her ears, Cinder pulled the trigger. The gun didn't move that much and the blast hit the can. Her jaw dropped and she turned back to the Mandalorian. "Good job!" he said. Djarin went back to the ship and took out two more cans. After he placed the two cans on the log and picked up the first one, he walked behind Cinder. "Let's see how you do against multiple targets." Cinder nodded and raised the gun. Djarin was about to cover her ears again.

"Wait."

He stopped.

"...Let me try alone," Cinder requested.

"The shot will be loud," he pointed out. "You might want-"

"I'll be fine," she said, not keeping her eyes off the cans.

"...Go ahead."

Cinder aimed at the first can and fired. It fell to the ground.

She aimed at the second and fired. Same result.

She aimed at the third. The shot hit just below the can.

"Follow through your shot," Djarin reminded her. Another blast unloaded from the gun. It hit the can.

"Yes!" Cinder yelled with a smile. She turned back to the Mandalorian. "Did you see that?!"

"Careful where you point it!" Djarin yelled as he stepped back.

Cinder didn't notice that the barrel of the gun was pointing at the Mandalorian when she turned around. She quickly lowered the gun and turned back to him. "...Sorry," she said as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Don't worry," Djarin said as he took the gun back. He then rubbed Cinder's head. "You did good."

Cinder looked up and smiled.

The Razor Crest was in the air at the moment, with Cinder and the Mandalorian in the cockpit. "So where to?" Cinder asked. "We still need a place to hide from the Guild, right?"

"That's right," Djarin said. "And I may know the perfect place." Djarin had set a course for Vacuo, and he had gotten enough fuel on their last supply run for the ship to make the trip. Cinder looked around the ship, slightly on edge. Djarin noticed this. "Something wrong?" he asked calmly.

"No," Cinder quickly replied. "It's just that... this ship is from Atlas, right?"

"Yes." Djarin confirmed. "Why?"

"Do you know if... there's a way for the army to find us? They might know this is their ship."

"I already thought of that," Djarin said as he pulled out two small circular devices. "Every Atlesian ship has two tracking beacons inside. One for lost ships in trouble, another hidden in case they were stolen. I already removed both."

"But they can try calling you by radio, right?" Cinder asked as she pointed to a radio next to her.

"I can jam their attempts to call me," he assured her. "But I occasionally turn the jammer off to hear what's going on, in case I'm too close to them. Let me show you." Djarin pressed a few buttons on the radio and tuned it to a certain frequency. They could only hear static.

"I don't hear anything," Cinder said.

"That means we're in the clear," Djarin said.

"Good," Cinder said with a sigh of relief. "Sorry for asking all that."

"No, it's good you did," the Mandalorian reassured her. "You're thinking ahead, you'll need to do that before travelling."

Cinder felt a sense of pride when he said that. She was glad she could do something useful without the Mandalorian worrying about her. As she looked back at the radio, her stomach began to rumble. Djarin was starting to get hungry as well, so he went to the cabinet. "Okay, what sounds good today?" he asked Cinder.

Cinder was really hungry after the training she did today, so she answered his question with a question. "Do we have any meat?"

Djarin kneeled in front of a small refrigerator underneath the cabinet. "We have some chicken, I can-"

The static from the radio suddenly cut out.

"Incoming craft, identify yourself."

Djarin and Cinder looked at the radio.

"Incoming craft, identify yourself."

They looked back at each other. Djarin quickly ran up to the control panel and began to turn the ship around.

"Incoming craft, this is your last chance. Identify yourself or we will open fire."

Cinder was about turn off the radio as Djarin turned the ship around. But stopped herself when she heard a new voice.

"Don't fire, don't fire!"

Djarin and Cinder looked at each other, a confused look on her face.

"Sorry, we had a small skirmish in our control room. This is Atlesian transport 421 requesting permission to land."

They were communicating with a different airship. Cinder and the Mandalorian sighed in relief. "That was close," Cinder said.

"Too close," Djarin added. "Let's get out of here."

"A skirmish? What's going on?"

"We shouldn't leave it on," Djarin said. Cinder moved her hand to turn it off.

"Our cargo is a group of Mandalorian prisoners that we were ordered to send here. One of them tried to escape."

Cinder froze. Djarin looked back at the radio.

"...I'm sorry, did you say Mandalorian prisoners?"

"Affirmative. Major Gideon helped capture them two days ago. Now we're here to drop them off."

"Understood. You'll be cleared to land once we have confirmation of your clearance code."

The Mandalorian turned off the radio. Cinder looked up at him, both of them were dumbfounded by what they just heard.

"Alright, get moving."

Five Atlesian soldiers with blue markings on their grey armor were watching a line of prisoners move from the prison transport into the gates of the complex that it landed in front of. The line consisted of twenty prisoners. All of them were looking at the soldiers with grimaces on their faces. They all had Gravity Bolas on their wrists and were wearing orange jumpsuits.

Two soldiers wearing yellow marked armor were at the back of the line, each one carrying a large bag. The guard at the front of the gate stopped them. "Whatcha got there?" she asked.

The first one opened the bag, revealing dozens of Mandalorian helmets and chest plates.

"Holy shit," the guard said.

"I know, right?" the solider with the open bag asked. "Go ahead, touch it."

The guard quickly dropped her weapon and grabbed a helmet, a gold and silver one with a narrow visor and an antenna. "Incredible," she said. She put it down and looked back at the solider. "You guys said Major Gideon got all this?"

"Yep," the second soldier replied. "He found them in that stolen airship just as it reached Anima."

"Do you know how he did it?"

"We don't know for sure," the first one said. "There's a lot of talk about it though. I heard he shot it out of the sky or something."

"Yeah, and I heard he used some kind of virus to make the stolen ship go offline. All we know is Gideon's the one who did it."

"Wow," the guard said. "That's... That's all I can say about it." She turned back to see the prisoners were all inside. "Alright, you better get going."

The two soldiers complied and moved along. Just then, the guard heard what sounded like another airship going to the landing zone. She saw a gray Manta land and put a finger to her ear. "Command, I just saw an unidentified Manta land. Please advise."

"Don't worry, they identified themselves. But we need you to talk to the pilot, see if he checks out."

"Copy that. Moving in."

The guard walked closer to the Manta. She saw a bunches of bullet scratches on the sides, it looked like it had seen a lot of battles. In fact... it actually looked like an airship that was reported leaving the scene of the Mandalorian skirmish in Atlas. Her attention moved from the scratched sides to a door opening. Once the ramp hit the floor, an Atlesian soldier with black markings and a mouth guard on his helmet stepped out with a young black haired girl wearing a beige top and jeans. She walked up to them, still holding her weapon.

"State your name and rank," she ordered.

"Chrome Stark, Staff Sergeant," the soldier replied, holding out a Scroll with his name, rank, picture, and ID number. The guard raised one hand and saluted.

"Apologies, sir," she said.

"At ease," the soldier ordered. As the guard lowered her hand, she took another look at the ship.

"Pardon me, sir, but your ship matches the description of a Manta that a Mandalorian took from Atlas a while ago."

"It should," he said. "This is that ship. And this is the girl he kidnapped." He lowered his hand to the girl, who was holding his leg and hiding behind it, as if she was scared of something.

"Oh, my God," the guard said as she kneeled down. "Are you okay?"

The girl didn't answer.

The guard looked back at the sergeant. "How did you find her?"

"The Mandalorian attacked my ship, killed a few of my men in the crash." he answered. "When he landed next to the wreck, I attacked him."

"Is he dead?"

"I don't know. He fell down a steep hill, I didn't bother checking on him. All I have is this." The soldier was holding a metal pauldron in his hand.

"Let me escort you inside, you two should get yourselves checked out." The guard extended a hand to the girl, who hid herself behind the man's leg.

"She's shy around new people," said the soldier. "It took me a while to convince her I wasn't going to hurt her."

"I understand," she said. "Follow me."

The soldier and the girl followed the guard, but kept their distance.

"Do you think she bought it, Mando?" the girl whispered.

"I hope so," the "soldier" said. "If not, things are gonna go from bad to worse."

The Mandalorian managed to get his hands on a suit of Atlesian armor once upon a time and kept it in the Razor Crest in case he was ever in a situation like the one he was in at the moment. To further sell the deception, he paid someone to hack into the Atlesian military's records and create a false record for him. Now, he was using both of these to sneak into an Atlesian complex and free his fellow Mandalorians, which was Cinder's idea.

After convincing the doctors at the base that he and Cinder were fine, he decided to find a way to open the cells. But taking Cinder with him would draw too many eyes. "So what should I do?" Cinder asked.

"There's a mess hall over there," Djarin pointed to a door behind Cinder. "You'll hear alarms sound once the Mandalorians are free. Once you do, head straight back to the ship."

"What should I do if they try to talk to me?"

"Tell them you're with me. Stick with our story, and tell them I had to make a report."

"Got it."

Djarin turned to leave, but Cinder grabbed his hand. He turned back to her.

"Be careful," Cinder said.

"Don't worry."

Djarin was able to travel a quarter of the complex before being stopped by a voice.

"Sergeant."

He turned to see an Atlesian soldier in uniform. He was wearing a white hat with a large blue trim, a gray shirt with blue sleeves that cut out to white at the hands, and blue pants with boots. "You're the one who brought that kid, right?" he asked. "The one who fought the Mandalorian?"

"Yes," Djarin replied calmly. "I'm on my way to make an official report right now."

"I can help with that. Follow me." The soldier walked into a separate room.

Djarin slowly followed, making mental changes to his plan. He would make a quick report and continue on his way to finding the cells. He sat down in front of the soldier, who took out a pen and clipboard. "So, I heard your ship crashed after it was shot down. Is that right?" the soldier asked.

"...Yes," Djarin said.

"Can you tell me what happened after that?"

"He landed close to me... and tried to kill me."

"And he was unsuccessful?"

"...I fought him, he fell off a cliff."

The soldier wrote something down on his clipboard. "I take it you weren't able to get his Beskar?"

Djarin didn't want to show the piece of Beskar he brought, but he also didn't want to change his story. So he took out the pauldron and handed it to him.

"Nice," the soldier said as he looked it over. "Very nice." He then took a bag that was close to him and put it inside. Djarin would need to recover it soon. But he suddenly had a realization of what else was in the large bag.

"Their armor?" Djarin assumed.

"Yep," the soldier confirmed. "All of it. Now don't get me wrong, you did a good job taking him on and saving that kid. But next time, see if you can get it all."

"...Right."

Before the soldier could ask anything else, they both heard a soft beep. He placed a finger to his ear. "Already?" he asked with surprise. "Alright, let him land." He looked back to the Mandalorian. "Okay, I think I have enough here. The prisoners are in cellblock A, would you ask a few soldiers to help you get them ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"This base has a special guest. One who can find a good purpose for them."

"A special guest? Who?"

"Jacques Schnee."

Cinder was sitting at a table alone. She knew the plan, what to expect. But she hated being without the Mandalorian. It always put her on edge, like she was expecting something bad to happen. It was like he was her security blanket.

But Cinder knew this kind of thing would happen more often. First it was with Watts. Then Kuroyuri. And now here. She would have to learn to be strong without him. But how? That was the thing that was bugging her.

"Excuse me?"

Cinder put her thoughts on hold so she could address the voice. She expected to see a soldier looking down at her, prepared to ask a million questions.

But she instead came face-to-face with a white haired girl that looked her age.

The girl was wearing a buttoned white blouse with a blue skirt. Her hair was tied in a bun, her bangs shaped around the right side of her face and a small lock just above her left shoulder. She had a very shy, disheartened look on her face. "Is... Is this seat taken?" She was gesturing to the seat across from Cinder.

"Oh. No, it's not taken." Cinder forced a smile to look unsuspicious. "Go ahead."

The girl sat down, looking at the table. She didn't say a word, just tapped her finger on the table.

Cinder tried to ignore her, to keep her mind on the plan. But she couldn't stop glancing at the girl. Cinder kept looking at the expression on her face, one that she was all too familiar with herself. It called to Cinder. She had to find out what was wrong. "Are you okay?" Cinder asked.

The girl looked up. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry," Cinder said as she put her hands up. "It's just that... you don't look very happy."

"Oh. It's okay." The girl looked back at the table. "I just... didn't have the best flight here."

"Are you alone?"

"No. I'm... with my father."

"Oh. What's so bad about that?"

The girl looked back at Cinder, forcing a smile. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."

Cinder saw her eyes were focused on something behind her. Following her gaze, she saw a man in a white suit looking back at her. He had gray hair and a graying mustache. He was shooting her a cold glare. A very familiar one to Cinder. He turned his back to her after a few seconds.

"I see," Cinder said to the girl. She picked up the Mythosaur necklace and showed a scar around her neck. She didn't see one on the girl. "How bad?" The girl pulled her right sleeve to show a bruise from a firm grip. "Does it hurt?"

"Not right now," her acquaintance replied. "Did your father do that to you?"

"My… stepmother, actually. But I don't need to worry about her anymore."

"Why not?"

"Someone else is... looking after me."

The girl started to smile. "It must feel nice."

Cinder was glad she was able to make her smile, but she could still see the girl was sad. Maybe even a little envious that she had to live under the same roof as her father and Cinder didn't.

So Cinder put a hand on hers. "What's your name?" she asked with a smile.

"...Winter."

"My name's Cinder. Oh, that kind of rhymes!"

Winter gave out a small laugh at the coincidence, Cinder joining her.

"Winter."

The girls looked at the door to see Winter's father staring at her. "Come on," he said.

Winter slowly stood up and walked over to her father.

"It was nice meeting you, Winter," Cinder said as she left.

Winter looked back with a smile. "You as well."

As Cinder watched them leave, she couldn't help but feel sad herself. Winter's issues with her father reminded Cinder of all the abuse she had to put up with at the Glass Unicorn. It was over now, but she could sometimes feel a shock around her neck, see the Madame glaring at her, and hear her daughters laughing. And seeing Winter face similar struggles almost made Cinder crack.

So she stood up and began to follow them.

"You know, none of this would have happened if we stuck to our original plan."

"Mother, we've been over this. We had to help him."

"That mask-lover wasn't one of us, Sabine."

"He had a child with him!"

"He wasn't one of us!"

Ursa Wren had been over this with her daughter countless times. Against her better judgement, she decided to listen to Sabine about helping a Child of the Watch. She was a representation of a Mandalorian leader: only concerned about her clan and no other. Focusing on the benefits of herself and Clan Wren and not the benefits of the rest of the Mandalorians, especially the Children of the Watch.

She didn't know why she listened to Sabine in the first place. Maybe it was to show her how helping an outsider had no benefits. Now... she was right.

A group of soldiers began to open the cells.

"Alright, everyone line up!"

The Mandalorians walked out of their cells. One was walking slowly so an Atlesian grabbed him. He shook off the grip, which caused the soldier to point his gun at him. "Watch it!" he said.

After everyone got out of the cells, a soldier with black markings began walking behind them. A uniformed soldier stood in front of them. "Look sharp, everyone. This complex is being honored by a special guest from Atlas."

A man in a white suit walked up to the soldier with a young girl next to him. The Mandalorians immediately recognized him as Jacques Schnee. "Thank you for the introduction," Jacques said with a fake laugh. He then turned to the prisoners. "I suppose you're all wondering why I'm here?"

Clan Wren said nothing.

Jacques whispered something to his daughter. "Pay attention now, Winter. One day, you'll be handling affairs like this." He turned back to the Mandalorians. "As you're all aware, I am the head of the largest Dust mining corporation on Remnant. I've been blessed with the opportunity for the Schnee Dust Company to mine in foreign kingdoms. But as new mines are being made, I have found myself to be... understaffed."

The Mandalorians said nothing.

"Now, I'm here to present you with a choice. You could either spend the rest of your lives in cages... or come work for me."

A young dark haired man spoke up. "If you're looking for more slaves... you've come to the wrong people."

Sabine turned to him. "Tristan, don't-"

A soldier stood in front of her, grabbing her hands.

Jacques laughed at this. "Young man, I don't know what you think you've heard about me, but I'm no slaver."

"The Faunus say otherwise."

"We offer Faunus the exact same wages given to the rest of our mining staff. Your argument's completely invalid right out of the gate."

"And you're going to offer us the same thing?"

"Well... I can't make any promises yet."

Everyone knew what he was saying. And they saw the treatment the Faunus workers had when they were in Atlas. There was no way things would work out for them.

But things weren't working out for them right now.

Then again... Mandalorians weren't anyone's slaves. Never have been. Never will be.

"I have a proposition."

Everyone turned to the soldier in front of Sabine. Jacques was confused by this... but still intrigued. "Which is?"

"Catch."

The soldier threw something to Jacques. Who caught it and looked at it. The uniformed soldier looked in his hands to see a small device flashing and beeping. He immediately recognized it.

"Grenade!"

Jacques screamed and threw the grenade in the air, which exploded two seconds later.

The disguised Mandalorian moved aside from Sabine, who had her hands free and was holding a pistol. She shot it at a few soldiers who recovered from the blast. Djarin quickly freed a few others and ran up the stairs. Sabine freed her brother and mother, who ran to two soldiers and quickly disarmed them. They freed the rest of Clan Wren and looked to see Djarin come down with a bag. Ursa quickly raised a weapon at him. "Why are you helping us?" she demanded.

"Because you helped me first," Djarin answered. He turned to Sabine. "Like you said before, an attack on one is an attack on all."

Sabine's eyes widended. "Din Djarin."

Djarin nodded and threw the bag in front of them. "Suit up."

Jacques stood up to see Djarin walking to the door and the Mandalorians putting their armor on. They didn't seem to notice him, or that his eyes were glued to a red button near the door that said "Emergency."

He saw his daughter slowly recover, but shifted his attention on the button inches from him. He raised his hand and moved closer.

*BANG*

Clan Wren looked at the door.

Winter looked up.

Djarin turned around.

They all saw Jacques Schnee fall to the ground.

And Cinder holding a pistol.

Djarin sighed in relief. "Let's go."

They all ran out of the room, but Cinder turned to see Winter on the ground, in shock of what was happening. But she formed a small smile when Cinder waved goodbye.

The uniformed soldier stood up and saw Jacques on the ground. Pressing two fingers on his throat, he could feel a pulse. So, he quickly radioed for a medic.

Clan Wren and Djarin had caught the attention of every soldier in the base. Not that it mattered. The Mandalorians had wiped out almost half of the soldiers before they were outside. Djarin and Cinder were heading back to the Razor Crest, but were stopped by Ursa and Sabine.

"Where are you taking the Foundling?" Ursa asked.

"Anywhere but here," Djarin said.

"Come with us," Sabine offered.

"I can't. We're wanted by the Bounty Hunter's Guild, and after today, Atlas."

Ursa extended a hand. "You have my thanks... Children of the Watch."

Djarin shook her hand, and Cinder shook it next. They ran back to their ship.

"See, Mother?" Sabine said. "This is what happens when we look out for each other."

Ursa smiled at her daughter. She remembered why she listened to her in the first place: she always admired her daughter's optimism and ideology. Her views on the other clans hadn't changed... but today was a good start.

The Mandalorian had removed his Atlesian armor. He pushed against the wall of the back of the Razor Crest, and it spun. The other side of the wall had his Beskar armor on it. He began to put it on while speaking to Cinder. "I thought I told you to stay in the mess hall," he sternly said. "You can't go wandering off like that."

"I know," Cinder said, who was looking out the window of the ship. "I'm sorry, I just..."

Djarin walked up to her, fully wearing his armor. "What is it?" he asked, slightly concerned.

"I had to get some things off my chest."

Djarin wasn't sure what she was talking about. He wondered if it had anything to do with shooting Jacques Schnee. "Did you?"

Cinder looked back at him. "Yeah... I did."

Djarin rubbed her head. "Alright, then. Just be more careful."

Cinder smiled.

Author's notes: hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hope you like how I used Winter and Ursa Wren, capturing their characters (especially Winter at a young age) was a challenge. Let me know what you thought.

To Marc Ello-Re Yes, glad you liked Kuroyuri. Yes, it was sad that An Ren died. Come to think of it, I think they were kind of plot armored in that chapter. Hope you didn't mind it too much.

To D.N Works, I'm glad you liked how I wrote Djarin. He shouldn't win EVERY fight, you're right. Also glad you like what I did with Watts. But that Faunus isn't Sienna, she's an OC I'm working on, her name is Aurora. I'll get more on her later.

To Mandalorian00, glad I have you on the edge of your seat.

To 23debal01, no problem. That's why I make these notes.

To Rook435, glad you liked the Grimm fight. I like your ideas with the other Grimm as well, and I'm glad you're excited for future content. And I'm also glad you liked Cara Dune in that chapter. As for the correction, don't worry about it. Hope you liked this chapter.

Also, I may not be able to update as frequently. I finally got myself a job, so I'll be busy during the day. I won't bore you with the details, so that's all I have right now. Hope you enjoyed, please leave a review!