The room is still silent, with only the Mandalorian's words echoing in the wake of the destruction he had caused. He can only stand there, still as a statue, staring down at the two eyes gazing blindly up at him. She blinks and lays her hands down on the dusty floor, the look of hurt and confusion on her face snapping him out of his daze.

Mando holsters his blaster and hurries to her. He kneels down and takes her by the arms but she jerks back at the touch of his hands. It hurts, he won't deny it. She shakes her head and pushes herself back on the floor, the threadbare fabric of her skirt catching on a few loose splinters.

"Don't," she says shakily. It immediately makes him pull his hands away from her but he doesn't stand or move away. "Why are you here?"

He doesn't have an answer for her because his mind has gone completely blank from the moment he saw her eyes. The shock of it all was still lingering inside him and he swallows tightly. He clenches his fists, struggling with the urge to reach for her once again.

"I stopped to refuel." He watches her reach for her face to wipe the hair away from her forehead. It takes all of his strength to resist touching her. "I didn't know you would be here."

"Of course, I'm here." The bitter tone of her voice is like a slap to his face and he can't help flinching. "I'm exactly where you left me."

He wants to argue, wants to tell her that she's the one that made the choice to leave him, but he doesn't. What good would it do now? She had obviously suffered things he'll never be able to imagine in the months since they last saw one another.

Several times, he opens his mouth to say something, and each time, he shuts it again. Nothing sounds right. Nothing sounds enough. He frowns and leans forward to take her by the arms once more and when she tries to flinch away, he doesn't let her. "We have to get out of here."

"We?"

She struggles against him, but either she's too weak to fight, or knows it's pointless. Either way, she steps up onto her feet and puts her hands against the armor of his chest, pushing him away. He lets his hands fall from her arms and glances at the dirty windows making up the back wall of the room. In the corner, the droid he had shot down is sparking and Sera turns toward the sound.

"I can't leave you here," he doesn't mean to whisper the words, but his voice is nowhere to be found at the moment.

"Leave me here again, you mean." She turns and blinks up at him. For the first time, the lights reach her face and he can see small traces of scarring around her eyes. His hands ache to touch her but he pushes the urge deep down and locks it away.

"We don't have time for that right now. Are you hurt?"

She doesn't answer him. The look on her face is passive, barely showing any emotion at all, but he can see traces of what she's thinking. She always wore it on her face no matter how much she tried to stop it. Mando knows they can't linger much longer in this warehouse. Moro and his goons are dead, but they're not the only threat this town held.

"Can you walk?" His words make him wince and he doesn't know why everything sounds wrong when he says them. When she looks up at him with a scowl, he braces himself for the sarcastic retort he knows is on her lips.

"I'm blind, not lame." Sera sighs and gestures with a wave of her hand toward the wall of windows. "There's a droid. It's a guide or something."

Wires spark from the hunk of metal now slumped on the floor and Mando wants to kick himself for being so impulsive with his shots earlier. "I think it got caught in the crossfire."

He steps toward her and though she can't see him, she turns and gives him the look he remembered all too well. A single eyebrow arched on her forehead and a frown turned her lips downward. He ignores it and slips an arm around her back, careful to keep his hands at her side and not her hip or anywhere that might feel inappropriate.

"What are you doing?" Her voice is right at his ear, with only the beskar of his helmet separating him from feeling the warmth of her breath. He doesn't let himself acknowledge the way her words make him feel.

"I'm getting you out of here. Be careful where you step." He moves forward and whether she wants to or not, she's pulled alongside him.

She's unsure of her steps and after stumbling over Moro's foot jutting out from behind the overturned table, she allows herself to use Mando's free arm to steady her balance. Together, they manage to make it to the first floor of the warehouse and he takes his arm away from her at the door. She doesn't reach for him to return to her and he isn't sure if he should reassure her that he's only checking the alley outside. Judging by the look on her face, he can see that she really doesn't care.

He leans around the door and takes a glance at the street. Aside from two obviously drunken men down at the end of the alley, the coast is clear. Maybe Moro isn't as important to the port as the bartender had made him out to be.

Mando takes her by the hand once more and she lets him pull her out onto the dusty street. Her feet are bare and blistered already. Before he can scoop her up and carry her, he decides against it and they continue through the shadows.

It's strange being near her again. For so long he had put her completely out of his head, not allowing himself to think of where she was or what they had been. He frowns at the thought. They had been nothing but friends. Friends with an undeniable burn of tension that he had extinguished months ago when she walked away from him.

Sera's fingers tighten around the material between the beskar plates, pulling him out of his thoughts. He turns to look back at her and hopes the pinch between her eyebrows isn't because she's in pain or anything too serious. When she doesn't speak, he steers her onward. Through the narrow alleys between the buildings and behind the tavern where he had seen her earlier, they slowly make their way back to the shipyard.

The Razor Crest sits near the back of the lot, dwarfing the small vessels used to putter back and forth between the nearby planets. He scans the surroundings and looks for any shadowy figures lurking about. Any other time, he would have taken his time, made sure no threats are waiting for them. Any other time, he wouldn't be in such a hurry.

Sera's steps are slower than his and she stumbles along the gravel path. There's a wince on her face that she quickly wipes away as he turns his head to her but he spots it easily. He slides to a stop on the loose stones and bends down before she can realize what is happening. The moment his arm reaches behind her legs, she jumps to the side and shakes her head.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you."

She doesn't let him scoop her off the ground and takes another step away from him, her hands falling away as well. Mando sighs heavily and straightens. "Look, I don't need you to carry me like a child, alright? I may be blind, but I'm not helpless."

"I can either carry you out of here or drag you."

"There!" A voice shouts from behind them and both Mando and Sera turn toward the sound. A small group of men, dressed in dark clothing and carrying weapons are pointing toward them and Mando reaches for his blaster with one hand while grabbing her around the waist with the other.

"What the-" Sera's protest is cut off as he lifts her from the ground and tucks her beneath his arm. She hangs there, unable to raise herself enough to fight back and he runs toward the ship.

"Drop the slave!" One of the men shouts, firing a shot that just barely passes over the bounty hunter's shoulder. He ducks to the right and spins in one fluid motion. Raising his blaster, he manages to take out one of them with a shot to the head.

"Mando, this really hurts!" Sera's hands are around his wrist and he can feel that the vambrace of his arm is digging into her ribs. He can't risk letting her go. She'll only slow them down and the ship was too close to stop now. "I can't breathe."

Another shot fires, pinging off the plate on his back and he ducks quickly between two smaller ships waiting in the yard. Once he's sure they're under sufficient cover, he sets Sera down and she takes in a deep breath, rubbing at her tender bruises. Mando readies his blaster and takes a peek around their cover.

The group is still pursuing them but are breaking off. One crosses the shipyard and circles around behind the Razor Crest and Mando sighs. They're being flanked. Quickly, he presses a switch on the computer panel in his vambrace and the bay doors of the ship start to lower. They could attempt to make a run for it, but between carrying her and trying to fight off an attack, he isn't sure they could reach the ship in time.

Which means he's going to have to fight here.

He reaches back and puts a hand against Sera's stomach, guiding her back against the vessel they were hiding behind. When her back hits the metal, she lets out a sigh. The sound makes the bounty hunter turn with a glare toward her. He never dreamed he would actually miss how talkative she used to be. What he wouldn't give to hear her crack a joke right about now.

"Give up the girl," A voice echoes from the darkness surrounding the various ships and Mando rolls his eyes. He looks through the computer of his visor for the heat signatures in the area and finds one man crouching beneath the landing gear of the Razor Crest. The easiest target and the only one standing in the direct path of their escape. "Give her up and you can leave with no problems."

"I've heard that one before," he mutters to himself and though he didn't expect her to even hear it, she scoffs.

"They just want their property back," Sera says bitterly.

"Yeah? Well, you're no one's property." As much as he wants to see the look on her face at that moment, he kneels and focuses on the body heat of the man hiding ahead of them. From this position, Mando has a clear shot and he slowly pulls the rifle from behind his back. He aims, finding the bulk of the figure in his crosshairs before pulling the trigger.

In an eruption of dust and fibers, the man is reduced to atoms and the bounty hunter wastes no time. He plucks another cartridge from the belt around his calf and loads it into the rifle. There's a quick shuffle as the others regroup and duck back behind their cover. It's at this moment that Mando moves.

Once again, his arm wraps around Sera's waist and he lifts her off the dusty ground. She makes a strangled noise of surprise in the back of her throat that he ignores before he sets off toward his ship. The bay doors are already lowering, casting the soft glow of the lights from within onto the ground.

Shouting from the back of the shipyard makes the bounty hunter spin around and he raised the rifle. It's hard to use with only one hand but he manages to find his target and fires another shot. He doesn't wait around to see if it hit.

He hauls Sera up the ramp and all but tosses her inside, ducking to the right where the computer panel was located. A flash of red zipped past his head and he curled his arm around her frame. She's pressed hard against his side and he rams his elbow into the buttons just inside the door. The sound of the hydraulics hissing is a relief to his ears but he doesn't take the time to enjoy their safety.

Once the door shut with a secure click of the mechanics, he turns to face her. The curtain of hair is covering her face once again and he wants to reach over and brush it away. He doesn't let himself and instead turns to make his way to the ladder at the opposite side of the cargo hold.

"Hold onto something. I'm getting us out of here."

She says something beneath her breath, another sarcastic remark, and he's glad he can't hear it. As soon as he's back in the pilot's chair, he goes through the motions that are second nature to him by now. Switch the engines on, prepare the thrusters, raise the landing gear. His hands work on their own and within moments, the ship is ready.

Outside, the group pursuing them is firing shots in rapid-fire that ping off the metal facade in flashes of red. Mando ignores them and presses the toggle to raise the landing gear. The engines roar to life and lift the ship off the ground. He wastes no time and steers the ship upward, pointing straight to the black sky covered in stars.

The blasts from below fade away as the Razor Crest lifts higher and higher, parting the low-hanging clouds. His fists vibrate around the toggles as he pushes the ship up and up. Even after they're breaking through the atmosphere of the planet, he doesn't let up. It wasn't impossible that the group would come after them, especially if they're slavers.

He reaches overhead to press the switch directly above to prepare the hyperdrive. He knows he should shout down to Sera to grab onto something, but his thumb is already turning it on and out of habit, his free hand reaches to push the lever forward. In a blur of white, the ship propels forward and leaves the backwater hellhole behind.

In the sudden quiet and stillness, he sits back in the chair and lets out a breath. He reaches for his helmet but pauses, glancing over his shoulder. It was strange how easily he fell back into the same habits he had developed when he knew her in the past. Always watching over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't near so he could slip his helmet off.

There's no point in doing that anymore.

She could be right in front of him and she would never see him.

Mando pulls the helmet off of his head and lets it drop into his lap before his hands rake through his hair. Thoughts spin through his mind and disappear as soon as he finds them and each one leaves him with more questions than answers. Questions he isn't sure he wants to ask or find the answers to.

Everything had happened so quickly. One second he had been ducking into the cantina to look for some under-the-table work and the next, he was shooting his way off the planet with her tucked beneath his arm. And now, knowing she's down in the cargo hold, unable to see a damn thing, makes him stand to his feet and slip his helmet back on in one motion.

By the time he's made his way down the ladder, she's on her feet and looking his way. It hurts to see the milky white of her eyes so he doesn't let himself stare for too long. Mando crosses the room in two steps and takes her by the arm. He manages to keep his hold on her for a split second before she's pulling away.

"I remember my way around, Mando."

His lips shut tightly and he takes a step back to watch her slowly move toward the table and chair across the room. Her hands search out in front of her and when she finds the chair, she sits down with a heavy exhale. At the sound of his boots tapping the floor, she turns to face him and forces a smile that he knows she doesn't feel.

"Can you see anything?"

Sera lifts her hand and swipes it through the air in front of her. "A huge brown blur. When you move, I see the edges of your armor and helmet, but only if it catches the light." Her hand drops back down to her lap and Mando frowns down at the raggedy material pooled between her legs. It's dingy and dusty around the hem but looks as though it might have been deep red at one point. When he looks up at her again, she's got the same forced smile that sits tight across her lips. "I'm sure you'd have preferred they take my tongue so I couldn't annoy you anymore."

"Don't say that. I should have come back sooner but I thought you had moved on. If I had known-"

"It's fine. Honestly."

Silence stretches between them and it's so thick, he can barely stand it. Ringing fills his ears and he wishes she would say something, bite his head off about the way he had held her too tightly or the state of his ship-anything that resembled the person she used to be. She remains quiet and he swallows tightly.

"Are you hungry?" He asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

"No."

"Are you...hurt?"

She closes her eyes and ducks her head down, letting a few strands of hair slip out from behind her ear. They fall across her face and she quickly tucks them back where they were. "I'm fine, Mando. You don't have to baby me."

He tries to restrain his annoyance but she has a way of bringing it out of him. "I'm not trying to baby you. I'm trying to apologize."

"For what?" Her eyes open and they're on him so quickly he almost thinks she can see him again. "You didn't do anything."

He swallows again, this time it's his pride that he's holding back and he cuts his eyes to the chamber across the room. The door is shut and he knows the kid is behind it, sleeping-or at the very least occupying himself with something. Otherwise, he'd be making an awful lot of noise to be let out. Mando takes a deep breath and turns back to Sera.

"You're right. I didn't. I left you behind and I shouldn't have."

"I walked out of your ship on my own, Mando, in case you don't remember." Another forced smile that tightens her lips instead of lifts them. He doesn't know why it hurts to see her try to pretend for him.

"I do remember. I shouldn't have left you the way I did. Not after what happened-"

She's on her feet so suddenly, he assumes something is wrong and he reaches for her out of instinct. She's much quicker and steps away so he can't take her hand. "I'd rather not reminisce at the moment if it's all the same to you."

"Sera-"

"Don't. Just don't." There's a quick crack in her voice and the bounty hunter drops his hands to his lap, though he doesn't take his eyes off her face. He watches the muscles along her throat stretch as she swallows. She turns away from him and quickly says, "I need to use the refresher."

He stands to help her find her way, but she had been telling the truth earlier. She finds the way relatively easily and as soon as the door shuts behind her, Mando leans against the ladder and lets out a breath that fogs the inside of his visor.

"You don't have to stick around you know? This isn't my first time." Her sarcastic tone has returned and he's thankful to hear it. Even if she made it a point to grate on his every nerve, he welcomed it. He had missed it.

"I'll prepare you a cot so you can rest."

It doesn't take long to set her up an area behind the table. The spare cot he had been keeping around since the last time she was in his life was far too short for him, but he remembers how she fit comfortably on it. For so long all he had were memories of her and the echoes of her laughter and teasing. Now that she's back, he can't help but mourn those times. His mind wants to wander back to then, to think of all the times they spent in this room together, talking and growing close. He doesn't let it.

It hurt enough the first time.

He's finishing up by the time the door slides open and she appears at the threshold of the refresher. Whether he was too distracted to hear her actually use it, or if she spent the last few minutes just to sit in silence, he wasn't sure. He takes a step back and clears his throat so she knows he's still in the room.

"I have some blankets for you and a cot if you're tired."

"I am," she says quietly, making no move to cross the room. "Thank you."

Out of nowhere, the tension between them spikes enough that it brings a small sheen of sweat to the small of his back. The need to be close to her is almost overwhelming but he knows he can't. Not after the hell she'd been through. He can't even imagine what all she had been forced to endure the last several months. He doesn't want to imagine it. Knowing she lived through it was torture enough.

Mando wants to take his helmet off again, wants to feel the cool air against his skin, and just breathe. He keeps his hands at his side and Sera clears her throat, turning her head away from him. She takes a step forward and he does the same. If she needs help, he wants to be close by just in case.

For the most part, he lets her navigate her own way and though she's slow and cautious about her surroundings, she eventually finds her way with a little instruction from him. She sits down on the canvas of the cot and looks up at him. From this angle, he can see how thin she's grown and he wishes she had accepted his offer to feed her.

He wouldn't let her turn it down when she woke.

The sight of her collar bones and sunken cheeks breaks his heart for the tenth time since seeing her in the cantina. He forces his hands to stay at his side, though he wants to brush the hair from her face. Touching her seems wrong and uninvited. She's been touched too many times by horrible men with greedy hands and depraved intentions. Even if he wants to soothe her, Mando knows it's better not to.

"Get some rest," he says quietly, stepping away before he did something stupid.

"Thank you. I will." Sera nods and slides the blanket around her bare, bruised waist. As she gets situated on her side, curling up beneath the protection of the blanket, Mando turns away to make his way into the cockpit. His boots make quiet taps on each rung and by the time he reaches the top, he catches a different sound.

It's a quick sniff and at first, he thinks it's coming from the close compartment where he had hidden the kid away. By the second time, it's clear exactly what it is. A sob, muffled beneath the thick fabric of the blanket he had given Sera, was unmistakable.

Mando winced, shutting his eyes as he stands at the top of the ladder. He puts one hand to the wall and leans his weight into it. He clenches his jaw tightly and focuses on the sudden pressure on his teeth instead of the thought of her crying. If she wants him to comfort her and be there for her, she'll call for him.

When after several minutes she doesn't, Mando turns back around and once again, takes a seat in his usual chair. He pulls his helmet off once more and lets his head fall back, blinking up at the tunnel of white and blue as the ship moved faster than light through space. He didn't know where they were going, but he knew he wanted to put the galaxy between them and whatever nightmare she had been through on that planet.