THIRD PERSON POV
Reina Beckett, Din Djarin, and IG-11 caught up with Cara and Karga, and relief washed over the ex-shock trooper as she rushed over to help Reina support the Mandalorian.
Their only light to guide them was from a headlight on Din's helmet, and unfortunately the Mandalorian didn't know the way through the tunnels. He'd never been down in this area since he'd always entered from the bazaar. With the lack of light, Reina couldn't see a speck of silver lining to guide her way, and therefore clung to Din while supporting him. Karga expressed the plan to head for the river, following the scent of sulfur, and escape from there, but Reina and Din knew the Imps would catch them there.
"We need the Mandalorians to escort us to safety." Din gasped through his pain. After what seemed like hours of turning corner after corner in the dark maze, Cara grunted in frustration. Din straightened himself, saying he could stand on his own now, meaning the medicene IG-11 had given him was working.
"I'll try to find tracks." Din said, and which on his heat signature visor. He pointed to his left. "We're close." In Reina's mind, the more they wandered the tunnels, the more anxious she grew, like something horrific was about to happen, but she couldn't place her mind on what. She feared she was about to find out sooner than later.
After turning several corners, Din leading the way, he suddenly came to a stop, his headlight illuminating Reina's dark suspicion... a heap of scraped Mandalorian armor, from gauntlet pieces to empty helmets. Din switched off his light and, stepping forward, crumbled to his knees and hung his head before the horrendous pile. Reina quickly knelt down next to him, placing both hands on his right arm. "Di-Mando, we have to go." she urged in a low tone. She knew how much he was hurting as she watched him gently lift one of the helmets, the T shaped visors aligning.
"You go." Din growled. "Take the ship. I can't leave it this way." His head whipped over to Karga. "Did you know about this? Did your bounty hunters do this?"
"No." Karga said. "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, not zealots."
"Did you do this?!" Mando grunted loudly, stomping to his feet and shoving himself to Karga's face and his finger to Karga's chest." Did you?!"
"No!"
"It was not his fault." A woman's calm voice broke the dispute. Who could only be the Armorer emerged from the shadows dressed in her dark-bronze Mandalorian attire and a fur piece draped over her shoulders. "We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert. The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter." She knelt down at the pile and picked up a scrap of armor. "This is what resulted."
"Come with us." Din suggested.
"No," The Armorer bluntly denied. "I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains." She then began pushing a levitating cart full of metal back down the tunnel from where she came. Din followed her, and Reina and the others followed him. They were led into a forge.
"So this is where you used your Beskar reward to obtain this?" Reina lightly knocked on Din's chestplate. Din nodded just as the Armorer released a piece of metal into the blazing futnace. "Show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction."
IG-11 stepped forward with the baby in toll on its metal chest in the knapsack. The Armorer looked down at the child's tiny head popping out. "This is the one that you hunted, then saved?" She questioned profusely.
"Yes." Din replied. "It saved us as well." He gestured to Reina. The Armorer then looked at Din's partner. "You didn't mention there was a second one on the mission."
"You didn't tell them about me?" Reina gazed up at Din with a raised brow, but shook it off and bowed her head at the female Mandalorian. "Reina Beckett, at your service."
"At yours," The Armorer stated, and turned her attention back onto the child. "It looks helpless."
"It is not helpless." Din denied. "Its species can move objects with its mind."
"I know of such things." The Armorer confessed. She then told a tale of beings called Jedi who had powers just like the baby, and could also harness other abilities like visionery and in some cases, healing. Reina's mind began to ponder on the sudden ability she had acquired in the form of sight...and the vision she had of Din last night. (If it was a vision.) She couldn't control objects with her mind, but still...Possibly, could she be...?
"This one is a foundling, and by Creed, it is in your care. Yours, and hers." The Armorer referred to the baby belonging in both Din's and Reina's responsibility.
"You wish for us to train him?" Din questioned.
"No, it is too weak." The Armorer said, and Reina noticed that she had been traversing around her forge. "It would die. You have no choice. You two must reunite it with its own kind."
"Where?" Reina and Din asked in unison.
"This, you must determine." The Armorer poured molten metal into a mold.
"You expect us to search the galaxy for the home of this child and deliver it to a race of sorcerers?"
"This is the way." The Armorer replied, and that silenced Din. Reina also.
Cara suddenly chimed in, reminding that they were on the run from the Imperialists. The Armorer responded with directions to the lava river where they could escape. Both Cara and Karga were eager to leave at once, but Din shook his head. The Armorer wasn't having it.
"You must go." She insisted. "A foundling is in your care. By Creed, until it is of age or united with its own kind, you are as its father."
Reina caught the light snort from Cara at the thought of the Mandalorian warrior Din Djarin as a father to the tiny sorceror baby, who cooed softly in its pouch. Reina couldn't deny it sounded a little funny.
"This is the way." The female Mandalorian repeated, and she turned from her blacksmithing to face Din. "You have earned your Signet." She walked over and began welding an emblem of what appeared to be a skeletal head with a very long horn sprouting from its nose on Din's plated bicep."You are a clan of three."
"Thank you," Din breathed. "I will wear this with honor." At this, the Armorer nodded and turned to Reina. "For you, I offer you nothing. For I see it in your eyes that you covet nothing."
"You would be correct." Reina nodded.
Abruptly, muffled explosions shook the tunnel system. Time to go.
"I have one more gift for your journey." The Armorer said, and reached down into a chest. "Have you trained with the Rising Phoneix?"
"When I was a boy, yes."
"Then this," She revealed a Mandalorian jetpack. "will make you complete."
"Thank you." Din breathed.
"You must go." The Armorer commanded. "IG, carrry this for Din Djarin until he is well enough to wear it." IG-11 exchanged the baby over to Reina so that he could hold the jetpack. Afterwards, Karga, Cara, IG-11, Reina, and Din raced out of the forge, heading for the lava river.
"Be safe on your journey." The Armorer's last words rang in both Reina's and Din's ears.
YOU ARE READING
See Me, See You: A Mandalorian Story
FanfictionReina Beckett is blind, but that doesn't necessarily means she can't see what or who is around her. She is a bounty hunter who agrees to take on a job with the notorious, but mysterious Mandalorian. Their motives and morals intertwine and Reina lear...
