Wrest Pin | The Mandalorian

Chapter One: The Witch

Being sidetracked by Karga had not been what he had intended when he had planned to deal with the 'pressing matters'.

The Child presented a relatively long list of 'matters', the first being finding sources in which he could locate the Child's kind. Locating his own kind had become hard enough, and sometimes he wondered if none had escaped at all and he was the last left in the galaxy. Logically, this would more than likely be false, but he had gone so long without seeing another it seemed...possible. And more realistic as time ticked on.

Mando wasn't sure how many standard weeks had passed since Gideon and the Nevarro incident, but he hadn't intended to go back anytime soon. Sleep had been plagued by something of...remembrance. Cara Dune pulling her hand back – Mando processes that he was in fact bleeding – he was in fact dying. The realization that the Child would be alone, and he would never be able to protect him if he was dead. It seemed simplistic, but it wasn't. It was very, very convoluted. The dreams weren't that straight forward – events never were with him. And Nevarro now held the same stomach-churning association that his home planet held.

A place where things had gone terribly wrong.

Karga's message with his tiny-blue figure still clawed at the edges of Mando's memory:

"I've got something for you. I think you should come as soon as possible."

And Mando didn't know why he stopped what he was doing – why he dropped everything. Maybe he felt he owed Karga something. Maybe Cara was still there, maybe – a lot of maybes, but Mando assumed he would never lose the heart racing idea of when Karga had tricked them into coming to Nevarro. And of course his allegiance changed, but trust was so difficult, and Mando struggled with it constantly. Truly, he trusted so few...and never all at the same time.

He glanced back behind himself. The molten planet was in the distance, and Mando sighed deeply, seeing the Child staring with wide eyes. Upon the helmet facing him, the Child cooed, expecting something. They often rode in silence, Mando wasn't one to talk, even if it was for the kid's amusement. He preferred the quiet and the only time the Child ever got loud was if he was hungry or tired. Boredom rarely drove the kid to make noise, Mando could simply offer him a shiny object to placate him and the silence would return.

"Let's see what he wants," Mando huffed, voice rough with a tinge of irritation. The Child's head tilted, as if questioning the tone. Mando had more pressing matters – it's what he told himself – but he had made very little progress. The only person he had in mind to speak to was an Abyssin he had heard about, but he was trying to delay that encounter in hopes he could find someone...easier to talk to. Maybe he had decided to come speak to Karga simply as a way to stall the inevitable failure he was facing.

They entered the atmosphere, coming to a slow halt, gently lowering to the ground. Or as gently as the Razor Crest could muster, landing with a thump that jolted the entirety of the ship. The Child made more sounds, clearly excited with the prospect of getting to leave the ship. Mando wondered if the child understood what they were doing, or if this was all brand new to him – if he remembered what had happened there a few weeks prior...If he knew how close he had been to being taken once more into the remnants of the Empire.

Mando stood, taking the Child with him as he did so. He made his way down into the belly of the ship, retrieving the child's floating cradle before the two of them made their way down the ramp onto the molten and rocky surface of the planet. To his surprise when the ramp touched the ground, Cara Dune was already standing there, as if she had been awaiting his impending arrival and knew when they would make it to the surface. His brows furrowed a bit under the helmet, maybe considering that they had been tracking him somehow, but that didn't seem very probable. Karga and Cara didn't seem like the types to care what he did very much.