Hell Child. (Keira Verd)

[Yasha Cadera]

The Infernal returned from another layer of Chaotic Hell. Another strip of her soul laid bare for no eyes but Strider’s, but her beloved Gurlanin guards, but Alkor’s.

[member="Ambrose Cadera"], Tuulu and the other gurlanin members of Yasha’s personal guard hemmed around the young woman, neither letting her out of their sight, nor leaving anything more than a hand’s width of space between they and her.

They stayed in wolf-form, the same form the pack took to assuage the horrors of a child-warrior, who feared the cold and lonely nights of the Civil War. To many, this behaviour was not strange. The guards stayed in perpetual orbit to their Mand’alor. Yet, to those who knew Yasha Cadera at all, something monumental changed.

The ineffable Yasha was terrified.

Ambrose was, above all, a fallen and violent protector. His version of therapy for the stunned Infernal was to take her to the Mandalorian Wilds, the same wilds Yasha once took [member="Keira Verd"] to recover from the loss of her son.

“Again!” Kaine Australis forged the broken spearhead Yash’ika carried through the Netherworld as a child, that she had on her hip during the war, that she brought to her second sojourn past the Warlock Gate. The Longinus settled in Yasha’s exhausted arms. Lungs heaved, buy’ce-less but not armour-less. Never armour-less.

​

The Mand’alor must follow the Resol’nare. Even exhausted, wounded, overcome. ​

​

The Mand’alor stood tall. ​

The Mand’alor was larger than any battle. ​

​

The Mand’alor was beyond such things as fear, or images flashing in the sanctity of the nightly dark. ​

The battle droid re-focussed. Veering toward the shivering twenty-five year old girl. Yasha’s scream was guttural and horrific. The broken-throated roar of a beast, whose civility was locked behind her protectors’ better judgement.

She lifted the spear and charged, dovin basal shimmering to life, and sending the battledroid careening into a pile of wreckage. Yasha dropped the spear and rushed the pile, twin katar unsheathing from her gauntlets, and stabbing wildly into the faulting electronic pile.

She screamed again, hands shaking so hard from fatigue she could no longer hold the spear. It fell clumsily to the ground.

“Again.” Ambrose growled.

Yasha stuttered, and began to hiccup and sob.

“Again!! Do you think they will stop for you?! Do you think the Mando’ade will be patient, when their leader falters!? Get up!” Ambrose roared, biting gently at her arm, yanking her aside, tossing her to the ground. He would make her strong enough to never be wounded again. “Again!!”

Once more, Yasha faced the Hell of her People’s convictions. Once more, Yasha attempted to stand. To stagger as another droid stepped forward.

 

[Keira Priest]

Tracking a target was one thing, but tracking one of her own people was an entirely different and decidedly more monumental task. If a Mandalorian didn't want to be found you weren't going to find them, but Keira had learned a thing or two about hunting another of the vode after the countless infighting she'd witnessed. It was an art she wasn't necessarily proud of, but there was no denying its usefulness in situations like these. Mand'alor's guard may have spirited her away, but that didn't make them invisible if one knew where to look.

Her HUD picked up on their presence before anything else, and she didn't bother disguising her arrival from that point forward, pressing through the trees until she stood on the outside of something she wasn't meant to witness. But instinct didn't care about any of that, instead propelling her forward when the next droid emerged, the drive to defend a fellow warrior winning out above all else. The greataxe was in her grip within seconds, and with the blunt end of the weapon she batted the machine backward, sending two rounds from her pistol downrange for good measure.

Only when all was quiet did the axe return to its place across her back, and instantly she turned on the gurlanin at the head of things, her anger tangible even from beneath her helmet. "You mind telling me what the hell you were thinking? She's not in any state for this, you di'kutla shabuir. She needs rest, not some nerf herder pushing her until she drops." As quickly as she turned on the pack she moved to help Yasha, offering the other woman her shoulder to lean on.

"I've got you,Yash'ika. You tell me where you want to go, and I'll take you. You're okay."

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The gurlanin snapped and growled, half circling the onward approaching Mandalorian and former Mand’alor. The other members of the pack, [member="Ambrose Cadera"] especially, stuck to Yasha’s side. Hemmed her in. [member="Keira Verd"]’s axe felled the battle droid. The guards growled and snapped at Keira. Yasha crashed to the ground, coughing for air as she dry heaved sputum from her mouth. The Infernal clawed at the ground, struggling to her elbows and knees. Forehead pressed to the ground.

Ambrose stared at Keira and licked his vast jaws, before nodding his snout to the droid.

“You dishonour those who die for you by not finishing that enemy yourself.” Regardless of Yasha’s state, Ambrose drove her.

He drove her, because she loved him. He drove her because he loved the weakling thing, stuck in one form with no telepathic connection to the others.

He drove her because she caused his mate’s death.

Ka’lo, belly just beginning to swell, standing proudly beside her Mand’alor, her pup, before the terrorists’ blast knocked them through buildings and stole Yasha away. Barataria… that battle burned across Ambrose’s every fibrous hair and inch of hide. Ka’lo died for the Infernal and her daughter. The sacrifice would mean something.

It had to.

Yasha shook up to her hands and knees. None of the others helped her, not even Tuulu. This was training. Ambrose snapped his jaws at Keira as she moved to help Yasha, pulling the recovering Epicanthix up from the dust. The majority of Yasha’s weight spread on Keira’s shoulders, the woman barely capable of staggering to her feet.

“I have two… two more to kill.” Yasha mumbled, attempting to get her feet underneath her. “Not done yet.”

“We will add them to tomorrow.” A growl stole across the pack, as Ambrose nodded to the droids and sent them off.

Yasha’s head lolled against Keira’s, and she pointed to a copse of trees overlooking a small lake a few metres away. Tuulu broke from the pack, transforming into his humanoid form to slip behind Yasha, and scoop her up.

“I know the place.” His baritone lulled with silk, this curious gurlanin. He held Yasha as if she were the only sacred vessel left in a universe of dead gods. Laid her down on tall grass, transforming back to his wolf-form to give Yasha a soft place to lay her head.

“… I’ve looked worse, Keira.”

 

[Keira Priest]

"You've also looked better." Not a lecturing tone per se, and not particularly accusatory, but motherly in a way that was gentle but also communicated that she knew best. Reaching up Keira pulled off her helmet, setting it in the grass and resting her greataxe beside it, sitting down next to the other woman. "You need rest. The constant pushing, all of that," She gestured back towards where they'd come, "Isn't going to do anything but hurt you in the long run. A good warrior never backs down, but they also know when enough is enough. Your friend needs to learn that, too." No malice, just simply stated fact.

With one hand she gently brushed the hair from Yasha's face, her brow knitting in concern. "You need something to drink, and you should see a doctor once we get back. Have you been feeling okay recently?" Her fingers brushed gently across the young Mand'alor's forehead before returning to her lap. She was hurting, that much was obvious, but there was something else beneath the surface she couldn't put a finger on. The Sole Ruler had been secluded from her people of late, and something told her that wasn't a mere coincidence.

"If something's wrong, you can tell me. I might not be Warmaster like my brother, but I know a thing or two about handling problems under the radar. It's a family secret, you could say." Her brother was an assassin and they were both Death Watch; if they couldn't kill it then it wasn't meant to die.

///​

​

A decidedly smaller gurlanin emerged from the treeline, her amber eyes gauging the scene before padding directly up to Ambrose and whining as she nuzzled at his neck, dwarfed in size by the much larger wolf. Her gaze lingered in the direction Yasha had disappeared in before her attention returned to her immediate surroundings and her tail swished lazily back and forth, head cocking from one side to the other.

After circling the leader of the pack once she plopped down in the grass with a sigh, looking to each of her packmates. "Maybe she could use some rest." It was an opinion Mia put forth cautiously, well-aware she far from the most world-wise of the group.

"Do we follow them?"

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Gee. Thanks Kiki.” Yasha rolled her eyes and glared at Keira. At rare times, Yasha could be the youth she was, and with Keira in private that was doubly so.

“I got shook.” Yasha grunted and shifted against Tuulu’s Side, a natural place for her as any. Keira’s hand on her hair and skin felt caring and restful. She nuzzled, only wincing when Keira’s finger touched on a scar. “I’ve been trained this hard since I was eight years old to take down any possible enemy for the good of my Vode. That I was chosen to succeed and lead and that it was my duty to take out whatever threatens us.”

Yasha turned her face away from [member="Keira Verd"], empty hands lingering in front of her. “I had his brain matter on my elbow. His blood coated my skin. He threw me across the room like I was a sack of tubers. Again and again we fought and death despised him. Refused his presence...”

Her face contorted, images of the battles and time beneath Kaas City rushing through her brain. An arm snaked to hold her stomach, clinging to the belly, which was for now, flat.

“There was no food, Keira. No water. Nothing but cannibal creatures and the black lake. A... nexus of the dark side of the Force. By the third day I was so dehydrated I’d started to seizure and hallucinate. I don’t... I don’t remember much. I was so thirsty I was... drinking blood.” Yasha smacked her split lip. “There are images? Moments like beads of water on fabric. I hunted the creatures chasing us for food. Drank from their corpses... I remember making it to the lake, there was a... piece of ruin in the middle we... he cut his thumb. Offered the black waters. I don’t know what was real or a hallucination. We fought and he held me. I’d wake up and he was always there. Keeping my body warm... and we’d... I don’t know. Fight? He wanted me to drink the black water. To become one with the Dark.”

She shivered, a cold stealing across her body. Tuulu licked at her hair, letting out a loose long growl. Keira’s kindness disarmed Yasha’s barriers.

“I passed out. When I woke up, I was no longer thirsty. He was so warm, and the entire subterranean cave network was freezing… I kept biting back and he… he just took it. Like he knew I needed to get my rage out. Like some form of fethed up therapy for the Hell Child. Gave as good as he got, though…” Yasha motioned to her bruises and broken body. She stayed silent, barely able to lift a hand. Silent as the lake below them, the lake below Kaas City.

“I’m pregnant.” The words fell like boulders into the waters of her conscious thought. Yasha clutched her stomach, and hissed.

“Kain’ik is more excited than he was for Ram'ika. Course I blame Jaster and the whiskey at the Golden Festival, but.. Australis loves his son and he’s already planning out the babies’ rooms. Now that he’s not Warmaster, we don’t need to hide. It wasn’t… like that when he first started taking care of Adara, we were just comrades. Friends. Him quietly taking care of my kids, while he was imprisoned in the Palace. Teaching me what a family, a real one looked like. I was so alone, Keira. After Kaden died, I was… perpetually separate from everyone, but Kaine kept knocking calmly. Taking my kark and loving on me. ‘Do you good, Yash’ika. Kad knows you had a rough go. You go cuddle up on the sofa, I’ve got the little ones! Come on, you lot! Bedtime! Nooo, Dar’ika, princess you don’t give Baba that look.’” Yasha put on her best Australis impression, a brief and faint smile on her face. “He didn’t have to, not after his prison sentence was over, but he pulled me in and called us a family and I needed a family, a real loving one more than anything, and I know Gray is awesome, but since Baiko died he’s been gone. Gone like Daddy was gone and now I survived a few weeks underground with the Dark Lord of the Sith both beating on me and holding me against his chest at night and I got back to Kain’ik taking our fleet away from Mandalore the exact time he knew I was probably dead under Kaas City, and then I was so happy he was alive that I married him on Westralis and I’m pregnant with twins and I’m twenty-five years old, and Mandalore has been my duty since I was twelve and I don’t know what to do.”

Yasha’s voice grew higher and higher in pitch as the words tumbled out of her mouth, a rare sobbing panic stealing her calm. The Infernal began to sob, a physically and emotionally overwhelmed young widow, who’d fought and survived more battles than grizzled old soldiers.

“Carnifex wants Adara and now when I throw into battle, and Kain’ik’s gone.”

Ambrose chuffed, watching as Tuulu walked Yasha and Keira away into the distance. Mia scampered around him, nuzzling at his neck. He raked his snout up and away.

“No Pup.” There Mia was, snuggling in and stealing the grimacing anger growling up through Ambrose’s throat.

“Pup!” Ambrose snapped. Ears flopping back, Ambrose lowered his mighty head and licked at Mia’s face, his wet nose knocking gently into her side.

“Can you not hear what Tuulu is showing us? Listen, Pup’ika.” Through the shared telepathic bond, Tuulu relayed Yasha’s panicked sobs. His own emotional state marred with righteous anger and a dangerous will to protect the Infernal. “We push her, because otherwise, she gets lost in her fears. Perhaps a rest would do her well, but there will be no rest when battle comes, and she needs to remember how strong she is. Not get coddled like a one-skin human.”

The great black wolf began padding off into the glade, nodding for his beloved pup’ika to follow him. If Yasha was on break, then Mia could be taught.

“Remember your stealth skills, little one.” Ambrose nudged her up with his nose, tail swishing back and forth. “Silent steps. Open your mind to our pack, and let all our eyes be yours. Come.”

 

[Keira Priest]

With all the patience and care of a mother, Keira took Yasha up into her lap, gently holding the other woman and rocking her back and forth slowly. Carefully she brushed her tears away, hushing her quietly and doing nothing more than offering as soothing a presence as she was able. "You're okay, ad'ika. I've got you. Shh, I've got you." Crushgaunt-adorned hands brushed carefully through long, dark hair, smoothing out the tangles and helmet hair that abounded. A gentle smile stole across her face, this moment reminiscent of one between mother and child, blood being the only thing lacking; but then, that didn't matter much to their people to begin with.

"What we're going to do is figure this out together. The most important thing right now is the health and safety of you and the twins. No more battles, no more training, no more pushing yourself until well after they're born and you're healed, okay? They need you right now, that's what matters most." Her sister was already well on her way expecting twins as well, and at this rate she was becoming the unofficial midwife of Manda'yaim. It wasn't something she'd always had in mind for herself, but after a lifetime of taking lives it was only fitting that she do something in her later years to reconcile that.

"Let my brother handle things for a bit. He's Warmaster, that's his job. You need time to rest and be a young mother." She brushed her hand again across Yasha's forehead, the lines of her face softening in a rare moment of tranquility. "Your family is right here, and all around you. Mandalore can rest on someone else's shoulders. You need time." Despite her own denial of it Keira had always had a strong maternal instinct, and perhaps the loss of three kids only served to bring it out more and more intensely as time wore on. Even she couldn't deny the need she felt to protect and care for the young Sole Ruler, but perhaps this was what they both needed most, in the long run: someone else.

"I'm here, and I'm not leaving."

///​

​

Her ears pricked in concern when she heard the Mand'alor's cries, a low growl rumbling in her chest as she pushed forward before Ambrose hemmed her back in. Mia almost pointed out that he was fond of coddling them both when the occasion arose, but decided against it, not willing to push her luck. He was always gentle with her, not that she would ever dare complain about it. She liked feeling special.

She bounded after him, slowing her pace only when he reminded her and gliding into the silent steps that came naturally for their kind. Her body crouched low to the ground, and she only moved so far ahead as he prodded her, not quite venturing to let him out of her sight. The crying opened up a pit of worry in her stomach, and a high-pitched whine stole from her lips. "Is she going to be okay?"

Her ears swiveled forward as a different voice washed across her senses, and she paused to look back at Ambrose. "It sounds like she's safe." But she remembered that he'd taught her Yasha was safest with them around, and only then, and so she pressed on.

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Overwhelmed with the strands of her life’s events, Yasha bawled unrepentantly in [member="Keira Verd"]’s arms. She felt, for a moment, like Adara on a bad day, when the child’s health was poor and Yasha’s daughter could only muster the energy to curl up in her parents’ arms and cry. Kaine was always the best at comforting the girl, but Yasha learned over time. Her own mother being under-affectionate due to their conditions when Yasha was young, and Baiko being for the most part one step removed from emotion due to her status as a servant for so long, this feminine, maternal affection was new to the Sole Ruler. Tuulu reached to Yasha’s hidden mag-locks and triggered them, one of very few to be given the ability to do so. Yasha’s armour fell away, sixty eight pounds of beskar sloughing off her body to the ground around Keira. He helped peel it away from his Infernal, laying the armour aside for now. Brilliant orange eyes shared a moment of concern with Keira, Tuulu’s love for the young woman clouding his ability to be a passive guard.

“We’d keep her going. Too much of her father in her, Baiko’d say. She needed to be worked, so she didn’t shatter like he did. She doesn’t know what to do with herself, without a challenge. Yasha’s never been without.” Even in her younger days, back on Mandalore before Aditya died, little Yash’ika was pushed to recover, pushed to catch up at schooling, pushed to learn Mando’a. Leaning down to remove Yasha’s boots, Tuulu eased the right one off, revealing a thin plasteel cast from foot to halfway up her shin. Yasha continued to sob, hugging her arms around Keira’s chest and burrowing her head into the elder woman’s cold beskar shell.

“I can fight for a few more months, before my belly gets too big… I did it with Adara and Reyn.” Coming up for air, Yasha’s eyes fluttered shut as Keira brushed across her forehead, smoothing the emotions lingering there. Stuttering a breath, Yasha blew her nose in a hankie and sniffled loudly. Her eyes stung. She remained in Keira’s arms, unready to face more than this unbidden and heretofore never known maternal affection.

“The day we met… while you came to the landing pad, I left Adara’s incubator to meet you. She… her heart failed that night. But Kain’ik fixed it. He saved her.” Yasha sniffled, running her head into the crux of Keira’s armour. The story came out, revealing Yasha’s mental state as it had been for years. Now at her limit, Yasha cuddled armour-less into the elder Mandalorian, and discovered that the maternal affection was tantamount to paradise.

Paradise. Family and Manda. Both women had been through tears and terrors due to the Zambranos, both survived battles, and the dangers of the Mantle. “He… He was so kind. How did you do it? How did you live under the Zambranos? How can I tell whether everything he's done for me is a lie?”

Ambrose was at the edge of the wood in seconds, watching the way Tuulu handled Yasha and her armour. The elder Gurlanin bristled. Yasha out of armour in an unprotected place? Growling low from his throat, Ambrose called the entire pack to surround silently and secretly. If Yasha was going to be so rash as to blubber and lay in a warrior’s arms, she would be protected.

“No, Pup. Not without getting back to work.” He spurred Mia close to him, nudging her with his snout. The young thing had much to learn, yet her concern for her pack member was valiant. Licking at Mia’s ear, Ambrose flattened the fur sticking up on her snout and around her neck. He groomed the child most, when he was nervous or over wrought.

Seeing Yasha sob in Keira’s arms made the emptiness in Ambrose’s soul all the greater. Ka’lo would have known what to do for Yasha. Ka’lo would never have let Yasha or any of them get to that point.

“Tuulu will keep Yasha well, only as far as he does not cloud his own judgement. Feel deep, his emotions are volatile. The can poison the rest of us to his fury over her state. Being part of the pack is as much about levelling emotion as it is commanding the lot.” He nuzzled the girl’s shoulders, a lupine hug.

“How would you help Tuulu and Yasha?”