Chapter Text
The world was spinning and he was falling.
The Imperial ship was falling too though so that was ok, maybe now the child would be safe. They were a clan now. Family. He could take off his helmet around the child.
No other living thing could see his face, he had sworn the creed. IG-11 had seen him. IG was not alive.
IG was dead.
He fumbled for the button on his bracer to reignite the jetpack and found it just in time. The landing wasn’t graceful, but it was as gentle as possible, considering.
The world did not stop spinning.
Instead of rising, he found himself falling forward instead, hands flailing, reaching, grasping for solid ground. He found it, planted himself on it, let his head hang and breathed heavy.
The world still kept stubbornly spinning.
Footsteps, running, heading his way.
“Mando?”
He tensed again, ready to fight if he had to before the voice registered. Cara. Safe.
Hands, brushing over his pauldrons, steadying him as he swayed.
“Mando?” Was that concern in her voice? “You alright in there?”
He opened his mouth to speak but what came out was more a croak than anything. He breathed, swallowed, tried again.
“Dizzy.”
“Dizzy?” Cara repeated, then sounding further away, she must be talking to someone else, “hey, you got a med kit?”
“Not here,” Karga said from somewhere to his right. The child cooed from the same direction. He must be holding the little one. That was good. Knowing the little one was alright took some of the weight from his shoulders.
“Anything else wrong Mando?”
Cara’s voice sounded much louder, a side glance revealed that she was leaning down, her head next to his own.
Another breath. Everything hurt. He was fairly sure that under his clothing were more bruises than skin but nothing was jumping out at him.
Slowly, he shook his head.
“Can you stand?” Cara asked, adjusting her grip on his shoulders as though to haul him upright. The movement hurt, but that was nothing new. What was new was the turning and twisting in his stomach. It was a sensation he was familiar with and he tried to pull away from Cara’s hold.
“Think I’m gonna be sick,” he gasped out when Cara resisted.
“Shit,” Cara said, helping him shift down back to the ground. “Turn your back.”
“What?” Karga asked with incredulity in his tone.
“Your back,” Cara hissed. Then, to him. “We won’t look, I swear it.”
There was a quiet ‘oh’ of realisation from Karga and the sound of boots scuffing in the dirt as Cara carefully extricated one of her hands from where it was supporting him.
“My eyes are shut and covered Mando.”
It would have to be enough, he would have to trust them, because they were out of time. He scrabbled with one hand to get the helmet up far enough and then he was retching.
It was miserable and it jarred every bruise and when it was over he slumped back against Cara, breathing heavily, letting the helmet drop back into place. If anything he felt worse than before. He shut his eyes against the wobbling sky.
“Is it safe Mando?” Cara asked and he could hear the strain in her voice. “Helmet on?”
“Yeah.” If she wasn’t sure, the modulated sound of his voice should be proof enough.
He heard her moving, shifting him so that he laid back against her chest.
“Still dizzy?”
“Yes.”
A sigh, resigned. “You need a medic Mando.” A pause as she shifted. “At least you’re not bringing up blood.”
He hadn’t even thought about that, but everything seemed muted and his thoughts kept slipping from his grasp. The noises outside his helmet sounded increasingly distant.
“Mando? Mando!” With a jolt he fell back into himself. Cara’s voice was loud, panicked, she was shaking him slightly.
“I’m ok.”
“No you’re not,” she shot back, ceasing in her movements. “Thought you’d passed out for a moment there. You need to stay awake Mando, you might have a concussion.”
He’d be surprised if he hadn’t by this point.
“There’s a med kit on the Razor Crest.”
Even though the modulator he could hear the slur to his words.
“Ok,” Cara said, “that closer than yours Karga?”
“Considerably.”
“Right,” there was a hint of steel back in her voice and for a moment he could see her in the war, commanding and immovable. “We’ve got to get you fixed up. Do you think you can stand up now?”
Could he? He’d have to. The alternative was staying here, alone and vulnerable.
“Think so.”
She moved, pulling one of his arms over her shoulders, her own wrapping around his waist.
“On three then. One. Two. Three!”
She pulled and he pushed up and his body screamed at him for it. The world span and blurred but by the time it settled he was upright, if swaying in Cara’s grip.
“You going to be sick again?” she asked.
He gave the question due consideration. He felt lightheaded and dizzy but although his stomach was rebelling at the movement it wasn’t as bad as before and after a few shallow gasps of air it settled.
“No.”
“Alright then,” Cara said. “A hand, Karga?”
Someone grabbed his free arm and slung it around another broad set of shoulders. From the corner of his eye he could see the child snuggled safely in the bag, strapped to Karga’s front and watching him with wide eyes.
The journey to the Razor Crest took much longer than he thought it would. His world narrowed down to the simple action of putting one foot in front of the other until he saw the familiar gleaming metal of his home instead of the ground.
Getting up onto his slab of a bed shouldn’t have been that hard.
“Where’s your med kit then?” Cara asked, eyes scanning the room.
“It’s under the, it’s under,” the word wouldn’t come. He knew it, could see it in his minds eyes but somewhere between there and his mouth it got lost in translation and slipped through his grasp.
“Mando?” The concern was back and it wasn’t until Cara told him to slow his breathing that he realised how close to hyperventilation he had been.
“Cara,” he gasped, catching hold of her hands because he knew the word, he did, “I, I can’t say it. I can’t. I can’t remember. The word. I can’t -“
He was panicking. He hadn’t panicked like this in a long time. The world grew fuzzy and distant again for a moment.
“It’s ok,” Cara was saying, softer now. “It’s ok, it’s probably the concussion. You’re alright. Describe it to me, use different words.”
Different words. He could do that.
“The thing, the control, that makes the ship go forwards.” Why couldn’t he say it?
“The thruster control you mean?”
“Yeah, the -“ he choked, the word still wouldn’t come. Cara’s fingers rubbed gently over the back of his hands through the gloves.
“In the cockpit,” she said over her shoulder to Karga, who was setting the child down in his little nook.
“On it,” the guild leader said, heading for the ladder.
“Cara, I,”
“It’s alright,” Cara interrupted softly. “You’re going to be alright.”
Through the panic and the pain Din didn’t need to see her face to know that she had just lied to him for the first time.