"Do you trust me?" Din yelled at you as you both ran toward the end of the landing strip, frantically avoiding blaster and speeder fire as you did.
"What?!" You screamed back. Din didn't elaborate, only grabbed at your hand and yanked you forward.
You both leaped off the end of the landing strip into dead air beyond. Below, a river sparkled in the distance.
Din engaged his jet pack, which arrested your momentum somewhat. You still were plummeting, but at least you weren't going to break your neck on the water when you landed.
Or… not. The jetpack coughed, wheezed, and gave out. Your fall resumed, and when you hit the water it was like being hit with a sheet of metal. Air bubbled out of your lungs, and you immediately inhaled river water. You tried to kick your way to the surface, but you were disoriented.
Suddenly, a strong arm was pulling you up, bringing your face to the surface. You coughed and spluttered, choking on the silty water you'd swallowed. Your ears rang from the impact.
"Breathe, I've got you." Din's modulated voice came from beside you.
"Oh my god, never do that again." You rasped.
"Can you swim?" Din asked.
"It's a bit late to be asking that question, don't you think?!" You asked, slapping the water in his general direction. Yes, you could tread water. You weren't going to go out for a swim race anytime soon, but you could keep yourself from drowning.
Suddenly, heavy fire blasted the surface of the river. A TIE fighter screamed up the river canyon over your heads, peppering the water and rocks nearby with shot. A massive rock formation above your heads was dislodged and began to tip towards you.
"Move!" Din yelled, shoving you as best as he could while still underwater. You swam frantically away from the rocks just as the largest boulders dislodged and crashed into the water.
You didn't stop until you were cowering under a rocky overhang a bit downstream, half out of the water, coughing and gasping for breath.
That was when you noticed you were alone on the rocky shore. The Mandalorian was nowhere to be seen.
Frantically you scanned the river, looking for any indication that Mando was there, that he hadn't been pinned by the falling debris.
Second passed that felt like minutes, your heart was about to burst out of your chest from anxiety.
Then, upstream, you saw a disturbance in the water along with a momentary flash. It looked like blaster fire underwater. You bellyflopped back into the river, frantically kicking your way against the current.
You dove under the surface, and immediately saw Din's limp body bobbing nearby, completely submerged. Rock debris and silt floated around him. He must have been pinned by rock and tried to blast his way out.
You grabbed his arm and pulled, bobbing him toward the shallows until your feet could touch and you could haul him onto the bank.
"Din!" You squeaked, panting as you rested the Mandalorian's waterlogged body in the mud. He lay completely still, his head lolling to the side. You gave him a shake and received no response.
Frantically, you beat your fists on his chestplate, willing it to be enough to force the water out of his lungs. You hands throbbed. Still nothing.
Summoning all of your willpower, you reached beneath his chin and disengaged the helmet lock, water and air pouring out as you began to tug the helmet up. You shut your eyes, then blindly grabbed his nose and pinched it shut before bringing your lips to his.
You got one breath into him before he convulsed, spewing water. Then something-presumably, Din's vambrace-slammed into the side of your face on reflex, and you didn't see it coming at all. The blow toppled you, and it was all you could do to curl in on yourself and keep your eyes closed. You could hear Din coughing behind you as you slumped on the ground, completely dazed from the blow. You could tell your cheek had split somewhere by the warmth trickling onto your hands, and the entire side of your face was on fire.
The helmet gave a half-hearted hiss as it settled back on Din's head, and he must have looked around because he was instantly at your side.
"I-I'm sorry." He stammered, pulling you to him. You whimpered as he tried to pull your hands away from your face. After a moment, he succeeded. You couldn't mistake the sharp intake of modulated breath.
"How bad is it..." You asked. Din didn't answer, but your good eye caught sight of your reflection in his helmet and you got your answer. It was pretty bad.
"We need to get back to the ship." He finally said. "We can't stay out here."
"You knew he was right, but at the moment your willingness to move was pretty damn low. You were exhausted, waterlogged, and now sporting a hell of a black eye.
"Come on, I can carry you." Din said. You snorted at him.
"You're concussed out of your kriffing tin can, you're not carrying anyone. I'll get up, just give me a moment."
Your head was swimming, but after a few minutes you finally rolled to your feet. You could feel Din's eyes on you as you swayed, vision swimming. You were quickly losing the ability to see out of one eye, and the nausea was intense.
"You saved me." He said.
"Technically, I saved you twice. And I had my eyes closed so I wouldn't see anything." You replied.
Din didn't say anything to that, but you knew enough about the Mandalorian to know he was processing. You held out a hand to him, more for your balance than for his comfort and after moment's hesitation, he took it.
"Ship's that way." He pointed to the treeline upstream. His vambrace gave a beep.
"Or maybe that way. Tracker's acting up." He pointed the opposite way, downstream. So you both began to stumble your way towards where you'd supposedly stashed the Crest.
An hour later, it was pretty obvious you were both fucked. Din was recalibrating his vambrace for the eighth time when the pounding in your face and head made you finally lean over and puke your guts out on some tree roots. Din watched you.
"Sorry, sorry." You said, leaning heavily on the tree you'd just christened. "I'll be fine."
A few minutes later, it was Din's turn.
"Close your eyes." He said, his voice tight behind the modulator.
"What? Why?" You asked.
"Just do it." Din panted. You slammed your eyes shut just before you heard the helmet hit the ground and Din took his own turn puking into a bush.
Well, now you knew he was human. His face and lips had felt human, but now you had further proof that underneath the tin can he was an ordinary man.
"You okay?" You asked. "I shut my eyes."
"Good." Din's unmodulated voice came. His voice was rich and low, and sounded pretty kriffing attractive. Then you heard the telltale sign of the helmet going back on.
"So, safe to say we're both pretty concussed, huh?" You asked. The Mandalorian grunted.
"How far are we from the ship?" You asked. No answer. Which told you that you were probably pretty lost.
"We should find some water." You said to Din. To your surprise, you heard him snort.
"You wring out your tunic, I'll wring out my cape." He said.
"Ha. Ha." You scowled in his direction, then winced as your face erupted in fresh agony.
"Does it hurt?" Din asked you.
"Not much." You lied. You still couldn't see out of your injured eye, and every step caused your head and cheek to throb, but you weren't going to tell him that.
You made it another hour. One minute you were looking at your feet, the next, you were inexplicably staring up at the spinning blur of the jungle canopy. You didn't remember falling, and you couldn't make your limbs work correctly to get you back up.
Din called your name. He sounded very far away. You shut your eyes on the spinning scene above you, letting your head flop to the side as your body half-heartedly tried to throw up again. There was nothing left to come up, and you sagged weakly once the heaves passed.
"Can you hear me?" Din's voice sounded labored, even through the modulator, and you knew vaguely that he had to be suffering as badly as you were.
"I-I-I... Uh..." You tried to get your lips to form words, but your lips wouldn't cooperate. "Tired, Din..."
"I'll build a fire, try to sleep." Din said. You tried to nod, but had no idea if your body actually made the gesture. You were asleep in moments.