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Eventually, we find Greef, Cara, and the child. Cara grins upon seeing us and takes Din from IG, who had been supporting him as he walked, shoving the child into his arms instead. Clearly, she doesn't care for kids.

I would've supported Din, but I can still barely support myself. Something's really off in my mind, that much I can tell. I just can't quite seem to grasp what.

I catch sight of Greef behind Cara, Emil still slung over his shoulder. "He hasn't woken up yet?" I ask. Greef answers with a grave shake of his head. I sigh; at this point, with no medical supplies, I can only hope he holds out a little longer.

We reach a fork and Greef turns to Din. "Do you know which way to go?"

He shakes his head. "No. I don't know these tunnels; I've only entered from the bazaar."

"Well, if we get the smell of sulfur and we follow it, it'll lead us up to the plains where the river flows."

"And the Imps will catch us before we make it to the ship," Din adds. "We need the Mandalorians to escort us to safety."

We turn around a few other bends and forks, and I begin to wonder why this place feels so odd. There's no sound, anywhere, and even though a large number of Mandalorians live here, we've not seen one. Of course, they're supposed to be hidden, but we've been walking for about fifteen minutes now. Is there no one here?

Even with my advanced senses, I can only hear the footsteps of our group and the occasional scuttling of a rat.

"Ugh, this place is a maze," Cara groans, holding her flashlight out. Din turns to look around, his own small flashlight following his gaze.

"Stop," he calls abruptly, removing his arm from Cara's shoulder. "I can stand."

"The bacta infusion is working," IG notes.

I look up at the tall droid, gesturing to Emil's limp form. "You think you can give him some of that?"

The droid nods wordlessly, stopping the group as he complies with my request. Soon, he's done and we're on our way again. I thank the IG unit quietly.

"We're close," Din points our group in the opposite direction, using something inside of his helmet to search for tracks.

Speaking of his helmet, I still can't believe he took it off and allowed me to see his face. And told me he loved me. Granted, he thought he was going to die, but still... what a fucking day.

Din guides us through the many halls, until we finally begin to see signs of civilization, signs that people have lived down here before. But still no people. As I look around for some sort of mechanism, maybe some way to open a door and reveal all of the people that are supposed to be down here, I notice that Din has stopped in his tracks.

I approach him slowly, seeing his hands clenched into fists. "Din?" I call softly, stopping at his side. My hand drifts to his shoulder as I look at him, slightly concerned. He's looking down, and I follow his gaze to see a huge pile of Mandalorian armor, including helmets. I gasp quietly. I'm guessing they didn't just leave all of this here.

Reaching up, he switches off the light on his helmet and steps forward. My hand falls back to my side as I give him a little bit of space to grieve. He kneels, grabbing one of the helmets in shaky hands.

Cara steps forward after a moment. "We should go," she mumbles.

"You go. Take the ship. I can't leave it this way." He's silent for a few moments, probably thinking. All of a sudden, his head whips to Greef. "Did you know about this? Is this the work of your bounty hunters?" he demands, and not lightly.

Greef is taken aback, but replies quickly, "No! When you left the system and took the prize, the fighting ended and the hunters just melted away. You know how it is. They're mercenaries, they're not zealots."

"Did you do this?!" Din repeats aggressively, dropping the helmet and getting to his feet. He jabs his finger into Greefs chest accusingly. "Did you?!"

"No!" Greef shouts back, nearly dropping Emil. I quickly rush between the two. But before I can say a word, an unfamiliar voice speaks up.

"It was not his fault," the feminine voice calls from the dark. We all turn to see another Mandalorian, differently dressed than Din. She wears an older-looking horned helmet, plated in gold, and her only other armor is a breastplate. Everywhere else, she wears leather or firs- even her skirt is of a leathery material. "We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert."

The unknown woman picks up a piece of discarded armor, just as Din had done, and holds it tightly. "The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter. This is what resulted." She looks down at the pile as she speaks.

"Did any survive?" Din asks desperately.

"I hope so. Some may have escaped off-world." As she speaks, she loads pieces of armor into a cart I'd failed to see before. What is she doing?

"Come with us," he requests.

She denies him immediately. "No. I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains." Without another word, she pushes the cart into the room she came from. We follow her, only to see what looks like a metal forge. Huge beams of blue flame stream up from holes around a circle to heat and melt the metal. It's strangely beautiful, and I've never seen anything quite like it.

Using a large pair of metal tongs, she lowers the armor into the middle of the circle. It melts immediately as we watch. Without looking at us, she says, "Show me those whose safety deemed such destruction."

IG steps forward, the child strapped to its torso, and Din nods to the child. Then, he gestures to me. "This is both of them."

She stops what she's doing, looking down at the small creature. "These are the ones that you hunted, then saved?"

"Yes, and they saved me as well."

She looks to him. "From the mudhorn?"

He nods. "Among other things, yes. But that was the first."

"They look... helpless," she says, but I can tell by the way she says it that it's not meant to be an insult, only an observation. I force myself not to take offense. Admittedly, I am somewhat small.

"They're both injured, but neither of them are helpless. The child's species can move objects with its mind."

"I know of such things." Din tilts his head. "The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great, and an order of sorcerers called Jedi that fought with such powers." A faint bell rings on the back of my mind, but I can't place it for the life of me. Where have I heard of Jedi before? Perhaps Emil has told me about them when he was sharing his research.

"It is an enemy?"

The woman puts down her tools and begins walking over to a compartment. "No. It's kind were enemies, but this individual is not."

"What is it?"

"It is a foundling. By Creed, it is in your care."

The child coos and looks over at Din with a smile. "You wish me to train this thing?"

The woman shakes her head. "It is too weak. It would die. You have no choice; you must reunite it with its own kind." My heart drops when I hear those words. I'd expected to have to return the child to his family one day, but that doesn't mean I'd been ready for it. After all, what family could possibly be out there that could care for him better than us? Sure, we've made a few mistakes, but we're trying, and what have they done? They don't even seem to be looking for him.

I silence those thoughts. Whether I like it or not, it's where he belongs.

"Where?" Din asks as I tune back in to the conversation.

"This, you must determine."

"You expect me to search the galaxy for the home of this creature and deliver it to a race of enemy sorcerers?" he asks, incredulous.

She pauses her movements, turning to face him. "This is the Way."

Cara, who had been standing by the doorway, calls for the woman's attention. "Hey. These tunnels will be lousy with Imps in a matter of minutes. We should at least discuss an escape plan."

"If you follow the descending tunnel, it will lead you to the underground river. It flows downstream toward the lava flats." The armorer explains, once again focused on her work.

"I think we should go," Greef urges.

"I'm staying." At his words, I turn to Din. Not this again. He seems to meet my gaze. "I need to help her, and I need to heal."

I cross my arms as he encourages me to go. "I can't leave you. Either you come, or neither of us go."

"You must go," the armorer insists. "A foundling is in your care. By Creed, until it is of age or reunited with its own kind, you are as its father. This is the Way."

His gaze falls on the child, and he grows silent. He only looks away when she begins talking again. "You have earned your signet. You are a clan of two." Sparks fly as she adds the detail onto the beskar of his shoulder. When she steps away, I glimpse a mudhorn and smile. It's fitting, to say the least.

"Thank you. I will wear this with honor." She nods, and I open my mouth to suggest we should probably hurry up and get out of here. But I don't get a chance to form the words as we all hear explosions going off in the tunnels we came from. Marching boots reach my ears. The stormtroopers have found a way in.

The armorer asks IG to guard the outer hallway. "A scouting party draws near."

IG dumps the child into Cara's arms, ignoring her protests. The child squeals happily, waving its little hands in front of her face. She grimaces.

"Here," I say as I walk over to her. She nods, handing the child over to me without hesitation. I sling his bag onto my back, making sure he's secure and taking a blaster out. I don't feel well enough to fight with my abilities for now.

I step into the hallway, watching for any troopers that slip past IG. I can hear the armorer offering Din something else, but I tune them out. Red flashes in the hall as blasters go off, but IG soon rounds the corner and gives me the all-clear. I nod, relaying it to the group.

"More will come. You must go." The armorer says.

He doesn't move. "Come with us."

"My place is here," she argues firmly. "Restock your munitions." She then pushes something large and metallic into the droid's arms, telling it to carry it until Din is well enough to wear it. She then ushers the rest of us out, and we leave without another word.

>>>>><<<<<

Finally, after about twenty minutes of rushing through numerous halls, I hear spitting lava and know we're here. Greef announces the obvious, pointing ahead. "This is the lava river."

Din reaches the boat first. "The ferry droid is fried."

"Yeah, but if we push the boat out, we can get it to float downstream."

"Looks old; will it take the heat?"

"You got a better idea?" Greef demands.

After a moment, he shakes his head. "Guess not."

Greef lowers Emil carefully to the ground and they get to work on pushing it away from the bank, grunting with the strain. "Push!" Greef shouts.

After a minute, Din steps away, kicking the boat harshly. I suppose we're all feeling the pressure of time.

He finds a large metal rod and tries to use that, but to no avail. It's stuck fast.

Cara gets the machine blaster from its spot around her shoulder. "You guys mind getting out of the way?" She shoots where the boat is stuck to the bank, successfully freeing it. Greef mumbles a compliment and I offer her a fist bump, which she returns with a smirk.

"Watch your feet, it's molten lava," IG reminds us. I snort, thanking him for the observation.

We've been drifting for a couple minutes when I hear beeping from behind us. I whip out my blaster and whirl on the noise, just a spit-second quicker than everyone else. It's the droid that had supposedly been fried. It looks around, beeping out of order questions that tell me maybe its brain is slightly fried.

And then, as we watch, it begins to rise on hidden legs, revealing arms holding a long metal rod. Now it's twice the size of any of us, looking extremely threatening. The funny thing is, it's high-pitched beeps make it sound strangely innocent, like a babbling child. And then something sparks, and its beeping halts momentarily before resuming in a normal manner that I can understand.

"I don't suppose anybody here speaks droid?" Din asks lowly, blaster extended.

"He's asking where we want to go," I translate.

Greef speaks slowly, voice gruff. "Down river, to the lava flat."

The droid beeps in confirmation and dips its metal rod into the lava, rowing and propelling us along. It mumbles to itself as we go, and I catch bits and pieces of a song I used to know. I smile softly, humming along with it.

I remove the bag from my back, placing the child in my lap for the ride. He giggles and reaches for my face as I hum the song to him, taking hold of a strand of my hair.

I'm interrupted by Greef, who shouts abruptly, "That's it! We're free!" I glance up to see him pointing to the light at the end of the tunnel, quite literally. I suppose we've been drifting for longer than I thought.

But Din tenses noticeably. "No," he murmurs, still loud enough for the rest of us to hear. "No, we're not."

"What is it?" I ask, gripping the child a little tighter.

"Stormtroopers. They're flanking the mouth of the tunnel. It looks like an entire platoon. They must know we're coming."

I sigh. I should've known we wouldn't get away so easy.

"Stop the boat." She waits, but nothing happens. "Hey, droid, I said stop the boat." When the droid keeps rowing, Cara whirls on him angrily. "Hey! I'm talking to you! I said stop!"

I stand as she approaches it. "Cara-" I don't get a chance to finish. She whips out her pistol, shooting the machine's head right off its body. I wince, covering the child from the shower of sparks.

It does nothing to stop the momentum of the boat, as Greef helpfully points out.

"Looks like we fight," Cara says.

Din shakes his head. "There are too many."

"Then what do you suggest? 'Cause I can't surrender, and your girlfriend sure as hell can't, either," she shouts, though I can hear the undertones of panic that her voice carries.

IG stands from his spot, turning to the rest of us. "They will not be satisfied with anything less than the child."

"You're not giving him to them," I spit, standing from my own spot.

"I am not suggesting this. I will eliminate the enemy and you will escape."

"You don't have that kind of firepower, pal," Din denies. "You wouldn't even get to daylight."

"That is not my objective." The droid's words almost carry a sense of... finality. I furrow my brows. What is he doing?

Cara interrupts. "We're getting close. Saddle up."

"I still have the security protocols from my manufacturer. If my designs are compromised, I must self-destruct," IG continues.

Din takes a step closer to him. "What're you talking about?"

"I am not permitted to be captured. I must be destroyed."

A moment of stunned silence passes after his words, which Greef interrupts with, "Are we gonna keep talking, or get out of here?"

I shoot him an annoyed look before turning back to IG. "No, there has to be another way. Would Kuiil want this?"

The droid casts its gaze down to me. "Kuiil wanted me to protect the child. I will die carrying out his wish. This is what must be done." He turns back to Din, leaving me to stare with my mouth hanging open. He sets down the large object that he'd been given by the armorer earlier, which I now see is a jetpack, and tells him he can no longer carry it for him. He says he can't watch over the child, either, and Din immediately searches for a loophole.

"Wait," Din pleads, looking up at him as I had done. "You can't self-destruct. Your base command is to watch the child. That supersedes your manufacturer's protocol, right?" IG remains silent. "Right?" He asks again.

For hating droids, he sure knows quite a bit about them. Then, I suppose we all have to.

"This is correct," the droid answers.

"Good. Now, grab a blaster and help us shoot our way out."

I'm about to release a relieved breath when IG brings up yet another point. "Victory through combat is impossible. We will be captured. The child will be lost. Sadly, there is no scenario where the child is saved, in which I survive."

The air catches in my lungs. "That can't be true, IG. There's got to be something we can do."

Din nods his agreement. "You're not going anywhere. We need you. Let's just come up with a-"

"Please tell me the child will be safe in your care," IG interrupts. My eyes widen a touch. I've never heard a droid interrupt someone before. "If you do so, I can default to my secondary command."

"But you'll be destroyed," the armored man points out quietly. Unless I'm imagining things, there's a hint of emotion in his voice, one I've never heard from him while talking to a droid.

The droid almost seems to nod. "And you will live, and I will have served my purpose."

He seems to be in denial. "No. We need you."

"There is nothing to be sad about. I have never been alive."

Din's voice hardens immediately. "I'm not... sad."

"Yes, you are. I'm a nurse droid. I've analyzed your voice." The child coos in my arms, and IG reaches out to him, lightly running a metal finger along his ear before retracting his arm back to his side. He then looks to me, seemingly waiting for something.

"He'll be safe," I reassure him, and my words are all the droid needs. He approaches the edge of the boat as Greef calls out, but that doesn't stop him. He lowers one foot into the lava, then another. Fires spring up and encircle the droids knees as the droid moves smoothly through the burning substance. Although he's moving slow, he's covering more distance than we are in our boat.

We're forced to do nothing but watch as he approaches the end of the tunnel. Din's hand slips into mine. Keeping my eyes on IG, I squeeze his hand gently. I'm gonna miss that droid. I think we all are.

He moves painfully as he reaches the end, his insides sparking as the metal melts under the extreme heat. Fire crawls up his body as he sinks, but he lets nothing stop him. I hear his final words as he stands with guns pointed at him from both sides.

"Manufacturer's protocal dictates I cannot be captured. I must be destroyed." And with that, IG-11 self-destructs in a brilliant explosion, leaving nothing behind of his thin metal body. The detonation covers the whole entrance and lights up the entire tunnel as we're forced to do nothing but watch.

But he accomplished what he'd been going for. As we exit the tunnel, blasters at the ready, we're met with no resistance. No force, no firepower. It's quiet. Scattered stormtrooper bodies are the only sign that a platoon had ever been here.

That is, until the familiar roar of a TIE fighter reaches my ears. No, not just a TIE fighter. I know that ship. That's...

"Moff Gideon!" Cara shouts in warning. We all raise our blasters, letting loose an attack of useless fire against the ship. Gideon fires bolts from his cannons as he whizzes over us, but neither of our shots find their marks. The ground erupts in a spray of rock where his shots hit, but no other damage is done.

He's moving too fast for any of our shots to be accurate, I realize as he disappears behind a hill. He'll circle around soon, though. We've got to be ready.

"He missed!" Greef points out, sounding relieved even though none of our shots found him either.

Din lowers his blaster cautiously, still on guard. "He won't next time."

"Our blasters are useless against him," Cara says, eyes darting in every direction.

Greef turns to me and the child, resting on my hip. "Let's make the baby do the magic hand thing. Come on, baby! Do the magic hand thing!" he waves his fingers in the child's face. The child, completely missing what he means, coos and offers Greef a little wave.

I snort, shoving Greef's hand back in his direction. "We're not asking a child to take down an entire TIE fighter."

"Then I'm out of ideas."

"I'm not," Din says from in front of us. I recognize that tone. IG's self-sacrificial attitude apparently rubbed off on him.

Cara shouts a few words of warning as Gideon circles back to us, but I grab Din's wrist quickly. I know I can't ask him to explain his plan to me; that would take too long, and Gideon's fighter already has us in its sights.

Instead, I offer him a low, "Stay safe," with a pointed look at him. He knows I need him to come back alive. He nods and I release him, anxiety bunching in my stomach. I hold the child a little tighter and position myself in front of Emil's unconscious form, not sure if I'm ready for whatever Din has planned.

He steps forward, slinging the jetpack that the armorer had given him onto his back. As Gideon approaches, returning blasts mercilessly, Din launches himself into the air. He barely misses Gideon's ship, which flies just under him, but as he turns his body in midair and latches onto his TIE with a grappling hook, I get the feeling he missed on purpose.

Those of us on the ground can do nothing but watch nervously as he struggles to keep hold of his ship and Moff Gideon fights to fling him off. I see the TIE spin in at least eight circles, nearly crashing into the ground before pulling harshly back up again. It's clear Gideon is using every trick in the book to get Din to release his hold on the ship.

Finally, he does. I see Din fall from the TIE fighter and panic for a split second, nearly running to him, before the wing of Gideon's ship explodes and detaches from the rest of it. It takes me a moment to realize that Din falling from the ship was on purpose. He's still falling, but I see his jetpack activating now and then to slow his descent, and trust that he'll be able to make it to the ground alright.

On the other hand, Gideon's ship spirals through the sky above our head, and the crash it makes when it meets the ground is visible from here. I sigh, glad that his plan worked and we no longer have to worry about Moff Gideon. Although, I am still curious about how he knew more about myself than I did. But that's a question for another day.

Greef slings Emil over his shoulder again, and before long we're walking the short distance to meet Din as he lands a little roughly on the rocky surface, arms flailing to keep his balance.

"That was impressive, Mando," Greef compliments.

I grin. "Stupid, but impressive."

Setting the child down to walk on his own, I approach our hero and give him the tightest hug I can. His smile is audible as he replies, "It worked, didn't it?"

Greef steps in before the playful banter goes further. "It looks like your Guild rates have just gone up. Both of you."

"Any more stormtroopers?" he questions, keeping his arm around my waist. We'd been joking about it, but I can still feel him shaking from the adrenaline rush.

Cara shakes her head. "I think we cleaned up the town, but I'm thinking of staying around just to be sure."

"You're staying here?" Din asks with a tilt of his head.

"Well, why not?" Karga asks, a wide grin on his face. He gestures to our surroundings. "Nevarro is a very fine planet. And now that the scum and villainy have been washed away, it's very respectable again."

I try my hardest not to roll my eyes. I'm not in the mood to point out the flaws of this place. He seems proud of it, so I'll leave it be.

Din seems to have a different idea of things. "As a bounty hunter hive?" he deadpans.

Greef looks between the two of us. "Some of my favorite people are bounty hunters. And perhaps, this specimen of a soldier might consider joining our ranks." He places a hand on Cara's shoulder, which she shrugs off.

"Yeah. I've got some clerical concerns regarding my chain code."

"And if you would agree to become my enforcer, clerical concerns would be the least of your worries." As Greef makes his pitch to Cara, Din lowers his head and looks down, distracted. I follow his gaze to see the child, wrapping his arms around Din's boot lovingly, the most of a hug that he can give from the ground. I smile softly at the little one.

"And you, my friends-" Greef interrupts our moment, placing a careless hand on my shoulder, "-will be welcome back into the Guild with open arms. So go off, enjoy yourselves. And when you're ready to return, you'll have the pick of all quarries."

I glare at Greef, looking between him and his hand. He quickly gets the message, moving his hand back to his side with a nervous laugh.

Din, on the other hand, is looking at the child again. He reaches down, wrapping his hands around the child's small torso and lifting him into his arms. "I'm afraid we have more pressing matters at hand."

I wince as a sharp stab of pain pulses throughout my temples, trying to ignore it and keeping my eyes on the child. "Indeed we do."

Cara leans forward, rubbing the child's ear affectionately. "Take care of this little one," she murmurs. As Din nods, Greef steps forward and copies her previous actions. But the look on his face is calmly serious for once, and surprisingly, I don't want to boot him across the lava flats for touching the kid.

"Or maybe, it'll take care of you," he suggests, tone soft.

I nod to the both of them as a goodbye, not trusting myself to say anything. Greef helps me hoist Emil into a comfortable position on my shoulder, and soon we're making our way back to our ship with new worries and unanswered questions.

{word count: 4,621}

a/n: omfg im soo sorry i didn't realize it's been almost a month since my last update sjfdkjs