Metanoia | The Mandalorian ON HOLD

Chapter 33

It was a while later that Juno was woken up by the child sitting on her chest, tapping her cheek as he blabbered something to her. She lifted him off of her and sat up, looking around as the child continued to blabber, pointing out of the ship. That's when she noticed the missing frog lady and her container of eggs.

"Do you know where she went?" She asked him and he nodded, walking out of the Crest. Juno quickly followed after him, shrugging off the blanket in the process.

They got out and reached Din, who has been working on fixing the ship. The kids stopped and the child spoke again, pointing somewhere to the side when Din noticed them.

"How about you two come over here, give me a hand? Make yourselves useful. And go put back on the blanket, it's cold out here." He told them and turned back to his work. The child sighed and started walking away.

"You know, you should probably come see this." Said Juno and went after him.

"Hey, kids! Where are you going? Come back here!" Din called after them as he stood up and followed them. He finally found them at the edge of a cave with foot prints in the snow leading inside. Din stopped next to them and crouched, looking at the footprints leading inside. "When did she go?" He asked. The child blabbered something.

"I don't know. He woke me up when she was already gone." Mumbled Juno.

Din picked up the child, holding him in one arm as his other one went around Juno's shoulders, keeping her close to him as they walked inside. On their way through the cave, Juno frowned, the feeling of danger coming back to her, but she said nothing, knowing that Din would keep them safe. They arrived to a hot spring where they found the lady with her eggs bathing in.

"There you are." Said Din as they approached the pool of hot water. "You can't leave the ship. It's not safe out here." He continued and the lady croaked something. They stopped and Din put the child on the ground and crouched. "Let's gather these up." He said as he started to collect the eggs and put them back into the container. The lady tried protesting but he interrupted her. "I know it's warm. But night's coming fast, and I can't protect you all out here." He explained. "Juno, help me." He told the girl.

She crouched next to him and started collecting the eggs as the lady reluctantly helped them. But just a few seconds later, Din saw the child reaching out to one of the eggs and quickly pointed his finger at him, stopping him. "No. No!" At this, the child whined and turned around, going to explore the cave as he smelled something, leaving the three of them alone.

"That was a bit harsh. Don't you think?" Commented Juno.

"Let's not discuss this now." He told her.

Another minutes went by when Juno suddenly froze, lifting her head and staring in front of her, her brows scrunched in fear as her breathing started speeding up. The Mandalorian noticed the change in her immediately and turned to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Juno? What is it?" He asked, the worry evident in his voice.

"We have to get off this planet. Now." She said as her vision from before came back, this time the images clear as the day. As if on cue, they heard the child cooing and screaming in fear as he ran back to them. Din quickly stood up, seeing as hundreds of spider like creatures were hatching and coming their way. He picked up the child, closed the lid of the container and pulled it onto his shoulder as Juno stood up, coming to stand close to Din.

The lady, in the meantime, grabbed her clothes and stood near them when they heard a loud growling before a giant spider appeared, all of the creatures running after them.

"Go, go, go! Back to the ship!" Said Din as he pushed everyone before him.

"You don't have to tell me that twice!" Yelled Juno as she began running as fast as she could back to the Crest, with the others following.

The way to the Razor Crest seemed longer than before, with the creatures following fast behind them. They were all around the group, even with Din doing everything he could to try and kill them, using his explosives, his blaster and even the flamethrower. Nothing seemed to stop the creatures.

They managed to get back into the ship that was crawling with the spiders and after stressful moments, Din managed to get them to the safety of the cockpit. They were all panting as Din spoke again while he tried to start the ship. "Strap yourselves in. This better work. I've got limited visibility. It's gonna be a bumpy ride." He explained as the Crest started to power up, giving them hope of escaping. But before the ship could fully lift up, the biggest spider landed on it, pushing it down.

They could only watch as it began destroying the Crest. Juno was breathing heavily as she watched, scared that this was the end, before they heard and saw someone shooting at the beast, killing it in a matter of seconds along with the rest of the smaller spiders. Seeing this, Din stood up and gave the child to Juno before going out.

"Where are you going? Stay here!" Yelled Juno after him.

"I'll be right back." He reassured her. She just sighed and hugged the child closer as he cooed.

True to his word, Din returned to the main hull, where the kids and the lady waited for him.

"All right. I'm gonna repair the cockpit enough for us to limp to Trask. There's nothing I can do about the main hull's integrity, so we're gonna have to get cozy in the cockpit. It's the only thing I can pressurize. If you need to use the privy, do it now. It's gonna be a long ride." He explained and went to get to work and after long hours of fixing, they were ready to leave the planet.

"Okay, repair's all done. Let's see if we can get this thing going once and for all." He managed to get the ship going, leaving through the hole they had fallen through and into the space, heading to Trask. "Wake me up when someone shoots at us. Or that door gets sucked off its rails." As he said this, the lady began croaking fearfully while Juno chuckled, now used to his humor. "I'm kidding. If that happened, we'd be all dead. Sweet dreams."

"Not funny." Said Juno as she stood from her seat and walked up to Din who opened his arms to her. She quickly climbed into his lap, resting her body against him as he held her close with the child climbing into Juno's lap.

"Sorry." He mumbled, not sorry at all as he kept his kids close to him, knowing they were safe as he leaned his head against his chair. The small family quickly fell asleep, all holding onto each other.