Under the Helmet ~ (The Mandalorian x Male OC)

Chapter 31: The Escape, Part II

Daedalus couldn't believe it.
"Din?!", he screeched, dropping his staff and running to the Mandalorian with open arms. Tears filled his eyes and he jumped into Din's embrace. "I'm so sorry."
The bounty hunter did not reciprocate the embrace, and merely padded the Foundling's back out of sympathy. "Don't be, it's fine," Din stated plainly.
"I thought I—," Daedalus started, but then noticed the other guard with him had wrapped their hands around his arm.
"Not to break up this reunion, but can we get out of here?!", Gayle urged. "We've got what we came for," she nodded at Din who was holding Alis.
Wally let out a roar, and the team ran out of the station and began climbing the ladders of one of the emergency exits.
"These will take us right up to the surface," Din's new beau informed. "It's quite the climb, but it'll take us where we need to go."
Din gently passed Alis over the Wally, who would carry her the rest of the way.
Daedalus couldn't handle this turn of events. He thought Din was dead. He was even wearing his helmet. They had broken up less than a week ago and the Mandalorian had already moved on?
After about half an hour of climbing, the team reaching the surface hatch where the ladder came out. Emerging from the tube, Daedalus was engulfed in the overly humid air. Everyone clambered off the ladder and allowed themselves a moment to catch their breath.
Din and the stranger took off their dark robes to reveal their prison jumpsuits.
"Guys, this is Lyra. I would've still been in there if it wasn't for her," Din introduced, looking over at her with a certain glimmer in his eyes.
"Oh please, it was a group effort," Lyra confessed shyly.
Wally set Alis down onto a dry boulder, revealing some serious wounds to her head.
"Holy Maker...what did they do to her?", Gayle whimpered, running her fingers along the dark burns scarred on Alis's lavender skin. "Is she awake?"
"I'm not sure," Lyra consoled, rushing to the Twi'lek's side. "She's still alive, just...broken. Whatever they did to her I'm not sure if she'll ever fully recover."
Tears swelled in Gayle's eyes. "You're going to be okay," she whispered into Alis's ear.
Lyra smiled and returned to Din's side. She was nice, but Daedalus wanted nothing more than to shove her down the shaft they had ascended and forget she ever existed. Looking away, he noticed Alis's hands were moving. Drawing something.
"Guys, look," he alerted, making his way to their injured crew mate. Daedalus took a smear of mood off the ground and rubbed it on Alis's fingers. The others gathered around and she shakily drew out a triangle.
"It's a Star Destroyer, with a cannon on the bottom," Verid guessed.
A small smiled appeared on Alis's face.
"You're right," Gayle approved.
The Twi'Lek raised her fingers to her scars, where she viciously tore them open, coating her hand in blood. Gayle rushed to seal the wound, but Alis quickly returned to finish her drawing. Using her blood, she drew a red line coming from the cannon on the underside of the Star Destroyer. After completing the line, she slammed her hand down over the entire thing, leaving a splattered, bloody handprint over the drawing.
"Do you know what it means?", Din questioned, turning to Lyra.
She sighed. "I wish I did. I haven't necessarily been included in the Kaas City politics the past few years."
Daedalus was highly annoyed. It was a poor attempt at humor, and her timing was absolutely terrible. Here their friend was bleeding out and trying to warn of a classified weapon, and Lyra was making jokes?
"Can you, like...not? Alis is our friend and we don't need your insensitive remarks right now," Daedalus quipped.
A look of horror appeared on Lyra's face. She was obviously caught off by the statement.
"Hey!", Din yelled. "Leave her out of this," he ordered, placing himself between the two of them.
Daedalus ignored him and turned back to Alis, who had passed out after finished her drawing.
"We have to get her back to base before she loses any more blood," Gayle urged. "If she doesn't get medical attention soon, I..."
"We understand," Verid consoled. "Any ideas on how to get off this mud ball?"
Everyone looked around at each other, hoping for some glimmer of hope.
"There's a way," Lyra interjected. The group turned to face her. "I have a ship hidden in these mountains, all we'd have to do is find it and get it working and we can head to wherever you guys are from."
"We don't have any other choice," Gayle stated.
A small smile crept across Lyra's face. "It's in a cave somewhere on the tallest mountain. Thankfully, the prison is built into the largest one, so it should be in this area. I suggest we split up?"
"I agree," Verid added. "I can stay back with Alis and contact any of you in case something comes up. Otherwise we should really try to find the ship before the sun goes down. We'll freeze like a Tauntaun if we don't find some shelter before nightfall."
Gayle nodded. "I'll go with Daedalus, Wally can go with Din and Lyra."
The Foundling wanted to go with Din, alone, but at least Gayle made Wally go with the two lovebirds.
The groups left it at that and began scavenging the mountainside for any sightings of a cave.
"So, what's up with you and Din?", Gayle asked, breaking the silence.
Daedalus tried to play it cool. "What do you mean?"
"Oh please, I know there's something between you two."
"And you and Alis?", Daedalus retorted.
"I've known her since we were kids. Her mother and her came to my family seeking asylum from the war on Ryloth, and my Father brought them in. That's all."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, she just...means a lot to me," Gayle choked up.
"Hey, she's going to be fine," Daedalus consoled, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"But she'll never be the same. I don't know what happened to her in there, but they broke her."
Daedalus feared it was true. "We have to get back to base and figure out the extent of her wounds before we say anything like that."
Gayle nodded. "You're right." She wiped the tears from her eyes and resumed walking down the steep slope of the mountain. "So are you going to tell me about you and Mando?"
The Foundling felt as though Gayle deserved the truth, especially in these circumstances. "We dated for a month, and it was great, but I don't think he realized how...attached I was. We didn't have to same vision of where we were going I guess."
"Do you love him?"
"I do."
Gayle sighed. "Then you have to let him go."
Daedalus didn't want to hear this. "I don't want to, we're so good for each other."
"I lied earlier, I...I did have feelings for Alis at one point," she stammered. "I hated it because we knew each other so well, we were like sisters, but I knew she didn't have the same depth of feelings. So I let her go."
"Why didn't you say something?"
"I knew that if I ever wanted to have a chance at a relationship with her I couldn't force it, she had to come to those feelings on her own. If I forced it, I would have lost her."
Daedalus felt bad at making her relive this. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't be telling me all this."
Gayle chuckled softly. "It's okay. I hope you can learn from our complicated situation."
The Foundling thought over what Gayle had said. There was some truth in what she said. If he ever wanted to be with Din again, he couldn't force it. By pushing for them to get together again, he would only enlarge the ever-growing distance between them.
"Hey, I think I found the ship!", Gayle announced, accelerating down the mountain and dropping down into a hidden cave. Daedalus followed her in and found a fair-sized red and white ship covered in vines and moss. After closer inspection, it appeared to be a ZH-40 Tribune-class light freighter, a common starship amongst pirates.
Gayle used her intercom to alert the others of their find, and sent their coordinates so they could meet up and begin fixing the ship.
After walking around the ship and inspecting the damage, Daedalus made his way back over to Gayle.
"Thank you," was all he could say.
"Of course," she replied. "I'm here for you."
The Foundling wondered where they would from here. His relationship with Din was officially over. He needed to get that into his head. Maybe some day he would realize how good they had it while they were together and give it another go, but, like Gayle suggested, he wasn't going to force it.