Hi folks!

Thanks as always to everyone who has followed, liked and reviewed this story. You guys are amazing. This is another chapter that gave me some trouble as there was a lot that needed to happen in it. But I finally got it done.

Enjoy!
Moki

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Din Djarin was living in a world of Darkness.

The Mandalorian couldn't remember a time when there wasn't Darkness.

And pain.

The pain was another constant in his life. It was general, not specific. He could never seem to collect his thoughts enough to figure out what hurt exactly. Or maybe it was simply because there wasn't any part of his body that didn't hurt.

He couldn't walk. He couldn't think. All he could see was Darkness, and all he could feel was pain.

As hard as the pain was to live with, the Darkness was worse. It never left him now. There was a reason that was important. Din felt like he should know why it was always dark now, but he just couldn't remember. No matter how hard he tried.

It was as if the Darkness wasn't just in the room any longer, it was also in his mind. Din couldn't piece together the events before everything turned black. When he tried to put it together, he only remembered being captured and the awful torture that followed, then the hunger, the pain, the thirst.

There was also a vague memory of Gideon being in the debriefing room with him, but then nothing. He didn't know how long he had been buried in the Darkness this time. It seemed like one day he had just woken up in it, and now it was a part of his life. A terrible, frightening, unending part of his life.

There was something else, too. A constant thought that there was some crucial detail he should know about the Darkness. That there was a very important explanation for why it was never-ending now.

But though he couldn't remember what that detail was, he was sure it explained why Gideon had left him there to die. With everything a else blur, that was one thought Din was unfortunately positive about.

That thought had been confirmed when Din realized after a time that no one came to his cell anymore. Din felt like days had passed since… whatever it was had happened. It always hurt his head to try and think about it, so he stopped. What did it matter anyway?

At first, when Din woke up to the Darkness, he waited for it to end like he always did. The panic had taken hold, but he had pushed it down, reminding himself that no matter what, the Darkness always ended before.

At the very least, Gideon always had him taken to the debriefing room. But Din was sure that hadn't happened in days.

On the one hand he was of course relieved. He didn't think he could endure any more pain than he was already in, but on the other hand it was disconcerting to never leave the room, to not have contact with any other people. Strange to say that about guards who dragged you to a room for torture, but still it had been something to break up the Darkness.

There were other things that confirmed Din's assumption that Gideon was leaving him to die. In the beginning, after he had been tossed in his cell this time, there had been some water. Din heard the door open once and then something metal had rolled into the room. He'd heard the swishing of liquid and had felt his way to the door, crawling as his injured body wouldn't allow him to walk.

Not that it mattered if he crawled, no one could see him anyway. The lights had been out for at least a day at that point. Din thought it odd how far they were going to keep him in the Darkness. Apparently, they must have been turning out the lights in the passageway outside of his cell. The few times they delivered the water, even when the door had opened briefly, no light penetrated the room.

Soon, the water started coming less and less frequently. Maybe once a day at first? It was impossible to tell. Then it seemed longer. Maybe every other day.

Now it had been too long. Din was trained in survival. He knew he didn't have long to live if they didn't deliver more water soon. He had been sipping the last bottle he'd been given, trying to conserve it, but even that was almost gone now.

The Moff was finally letting him die, slowly and painfully. When Din had a few moments of sane thought, in between the panic and the terror, he would contemplate that and feel alternately relieved or frightened. No one wanted to die alone in the dark, not even a fierce Mandalorian warrior, but he also wished for an ending to the nightmare. Other times, the pain from his body and the horror of the Darkness was so much that he couldn't think much of anything at all.

Din could feel that there were multiple wounds covering his body but, in the Darkness, he couldn't tell what had caused them. He didn't know exactly what had happened to him. It just felt like every inch of his body had been injured in some very painful way.

The Mandalorian couldn't find a spot to lay on the bench that didn't put pressure on some festering wound, so he kept up a constant rotation. He moved from his back to each side and to his stomach and back again, trying to keep his weight off the sorest spots as best he could. The nearly continual movement made him more exhausted than he already was.

As he lay alone in the Darkness, Din wished that Grogu would come again. Somewhere in the deep recesses of Din's thoughts he remembered that had happened… once, twice? It had been so nice to have the feelings of love come through and help alleviate some of the pain.

But Din hadn't heard or felt anything in so long that he started to wonder if maybe it had just been a dream. One created by a mind that had been forced to endure never-ending Darkness, assisted by a body that was starving, dehydrated and severely injured.

Din could feel himself growing weaker by the hour. At some point he fell asleep, unsure if he'd ever wake up again.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Bo was on the bridge of the cruiser, trying to concentrate on something that should have been important, but was really just an attempt to keep her mind occupied. She wasn't only worried about Din now; she was also worried about his son.

She chanced a glance at the little one, sitting quietly nearby in a chair.

Bo hadn't let Grogu out of her sight in days, not since….that night.

They had been asleep. The child nestled against her as he often had. It gave them both comfort and happened almost every night now, his cot long unused.

Throughout that night he had been restless but sadly that wasn't unusual. Previously, when that occurred, Bo had been able to wake him up from the nightmares and visions, and he would go back to sleep. That night the dreams had been relentless. She'd barely gotten the child back to sleep before another one would hit. Again and again and again.

Finally, she had gotten him to sleep after what felt like at least a dozen times, and all seemed well for a little while.

Then suddenly she had been awakened by a scream. A scream of such horror and torment that she would not soon forget it.

If she ever did.

Bo had jumped awake to find the little one covering his eyes, his wails growing louder by the second.

"Grogu! It's okay! Wake up, please wake up," she had pleaded, tears springing to her own eyes, knowing that something awful must have been happening to Din at that moment.

Grogu had come to the present, looking around in confusion, whining and crying.

"It's okay, everything is okay." The words had come to her without any thought. A common comfort that seemed appropriate at a time like that. But later she wondered why she had said them. How could she tell the child everything was alright when he had obviously felt something so horrific that it had caused him to scream like that?

The next morning, she and the Armorer had discussed the incident quietly, while the child slept in the bed on the other side of the room.

"That is troubling," The Armorer had said, looking over at Grogu. "Do you think it's possible that…?"

The Armorer had paused, but Bo knew what she wanted to ask. She had had those same thoughts herself.

What if that was the moment Din had died?

After those terrible screams, Bo too had wondered if the child had been reacting to his father being torn from him, from their bond through the Force being violently ripped apart – like a bandage being pulled painfully from a wound.

As she thought about the Armorer's question, Bo remembered how she had held Grogu in those frightening moments after the screams, rocking and continuing to murmur reassurances until he eventually settled down.

"No," she finally answered. "I think that if… the worst had happened, we would know."

Bo couldn't bring herself to say the words out loud. She told herself it was because of the child, but the truth was she didn't want to say them. She didn't want to somehow bring that reality into existence by speaking of it.

"What do you mean?" The Armorer asked.

"What happened was frightening and awful, but I think as bad as that was, it would have been much worse if…something else had happened. I don't think he would have ever calmed down. Maybe not for a long while. The fact that he did calm down eventually, I think that's a sign that Din is still alive." She lowered her voice even more when she said the last few words.

If Din had died, Bo felt certain Grogu would have been inconsolable. For how long she wasn't sure, but definitely much longer than it had taken her to calm him down that night.

But as certain as she felt that Din was still alive, she also felt just as certain that his time was growing short.

Her fears were confirmed a few hours later that same morning. Grogu finally woke up, but she had been saddened to see that he had changed. The child was lethargic, refusing to eat, and only barely accepting some water.

The next night, when she had tried to turn the lights out to sleep, he had screamed again in terror until she turned them back on again.

Now the child was with her at all times, no matter where she went. She didn't want him out of her sight for one moment if she could help it.

Something else had changed after that night as well. Since that incident, Bo had not been visited by Imagine Din. She couldn't decide if that made her happy or not. She never really thought those visits were real. Neither she nor Din were Force-sensitive like Grogu, so it wasn't as if those conversations had actually happened. She knew that, but still, she had come to expect them.

In the beginning, the imagined conversations had helped her to deal with Din's absence, with the heavy feeling of responsibility for getting him back. She felt that responsibility as a leader, a friend, and as the person who had been spending the most time taking care of his son.

When he had started coming to her showing signs of his ill treatment, he had been less of a comfort and more of a reminder that she needed to work harder to get him back.

But now his absence tore at her. Bo didn't know what to make of it. She hoped that it meant they were getting close. Maybe she didn't need to create an Imagine Din because she was going to see the real one again soon.

She let herself believe that because believing the other thing, that he was gone because the real Din was gone or nearly gone, was too hard to contemplate.

Bo yawned and scrubbed a hand across her face as she tried to keep her eyes on the monitor she'd been studying, looking at Axe's map of the base. The lack of sleep was starting to wear at her.

The previous day she had sent Axe on another recon mission, and their last conversation hadn't gone well at all. She had been exhausted, he had been exhausted and unfortunately, they had taken it out on each other.

Bo tried to block that conversation from her mind, but it kept replaying over and over again.

"I don't know why you're trying to delay this," Bo snapped after Axe had said they needed to wait yet again before going in after Din.

"That's not what I'm doing," Axe had said, looking genuinely offended that she would even suggest it. "I know you want to get him back. We all do…"

Bo interrupted him with a chuffed breath. "Really? I seem to recall it wasn't that long ago that you would have happily seen me kill Din Djarin to take back the Darksaber."

"Hey, that's not fair. Look, I may have had problems with the man in the past but I'm not heartless. I don't want to leave him there and I have no desire to see his child made fatherless."

Bo hadn't replied. She knew he was right, but she just hadn't been able to admit it then. She was too drained by everything, by the long days and nights, by the child's increasing nightmares, by the guilt of even feeling drained when Din was going through something far worse.

"I want to get him back, believe me," Axe had continued, interrupting her thoughts. "But we need to do this right. Let me go back and see what else I can find out. We're getting close to a break. I can feel it."

She had let him go without really clearing anything up. When he got back, she would need to apologize.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Another couple days went by, without any word from Axe. During that time, Bo was frightened to notice that Grogu kept getting weaker. Obviously reflecting whatever atrocities were being done to Din, the child continued to barely sleep or eat, only accepting small amounts of water from time to time.

Bo could see that the connection between Grogu and Din, which many had observed was strong, was deeper and more powerful than anyone had realized. Grogu was not only Force-sensitive, he'd been through a lot. The little one had lost so many people in his young (yet long) life. It seemed like whatever was happening to Din now was just too much for him to take.

The more Bo thought about it, the more she saw the similarities between father and son. They both had had to endure pain and loss much too early in life. Grogu was so like Din, and Din so like Grogu, it made her heart ache.

As Grogu continued to get worse, Bo wondered briefly if maybe she should try to find Ahsoka and get him back to the Jedi. But she decided against it almost immediately. She didn't think it would help. Grogu had chosen to be with Din, he wouldn't want to go to anyone else. Besides, she didn't think distance would really matter. Grogu would still know, and he'd still be reacting the same way he was now. It was better that he was with people he knew.

They needed to get Din back, and soon, or she was afraid that neither of them would survive.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

On the third day after Axe had left, with still no word from him, Bo and the Armorer had another discussion about Grogu, as well as about his father.

"Based on the child, we need to prepare ourselves for the worst," the Armorer said gravely. They were conversing on the bridge of the cruiser, keeping their voices down for the child's sake.

Grogu had been in his IG-12 suit, but had moved to a chair and was sitting looking out one of the windows. In the past few days, Bo had been frightened by the way his eyes seemed to look straight through her sometimes. It was something new since the incident the other night and it unnerved her.

"I still don't think Din is dead," Bo whispered fiercely, assuring herself as much as the other woman.

"I think as bad as this is," Bo shrugged at Grogu, "I still believe it would be much worse if Din were dead." It frightened her how easily she could now say that word out loud in reference to Din.

"Agreed," The Armorer replied. "But we need to prepare for the fact that you're going to be bringing a very injured man back on this ship. Do you have the medical necessities to deal with that?"

"Not enough," Bo admitted with a sad sigh. "We have some supplies, but whatever was on the ship when we captured it has been mostly used. We have all the equipment in the medbay of course, but none of the supplies that would be used most often."

"Anesthetic? Bacta? Antibiotics? Sutures?" The Armorer asked.

"Again, some. Axe was able to steal some things from the base in preparation for the rescue, but only what he could carry."

"And we can't stop on any planet with medical facilities, thanks to Gideon having spies everywhere," the Armorer said sadly. "We can also assume that once we get Din away (Bo was happy to note that the Armorer wasn't saying "if"), Moff Gideon will open an even wider manhunt for all Mandalorians, especially Din Djarin."

"Which means we're on our own," Bo stated with a frustrated shake of her head.

"Exactly. Do you have anyone on your crew who is medically trained?"

"I have people who are good at field dressings but nothing like I'm anticipating Din will need," Bo shook her head. "Do you have anyone like that?"

"I have a highly skilled medic in our Covert," The Armorer said with a nod. "He is ready and on standby to come as soon as Din is returned. While it would be better to take Din to a fully functioning hospital, our medic will be the best chance he has."

Bo got the impression that this discussion had already happened between the Armorer and the rest of her Covert.

The Armorer seemed to read more into her expression than Bo intended. "I didn't mean to imply, Lady Kryze, that you wouldn't be prepared to do whatever is necessary," she said, bowing her head slightly.

"No, of course not," Bo held up a hand to reassure the other woman. "I don't care who treats him. I just care that he's okay."

"Obviously, our Covert has been discussing this at length. There are many who are also ready to volunteer to help with the rescue should you need it," the Armorer said.

"Of course. I would be happy for their help," Bo agreed with a relieved sigh.

Sometimes Bo had felt alone in her attempts to get Din back. She saw now how foolish that was. She should have realized that his Covert would want him back as well. She knew from talking with Din that many of them had literally grown up together, having been adopted as Foundlings and raised in the fighting corps. He was just as important to all of them as he was to her and his child.

Bo didn't care about the hierarchy at this point. If Din's Covert had a more highly trained medical professional than she did, she would be happy to let them take on Din's care.

"Good," the Armorer said. "Hopefully it will be enough."

"Hopefully," Bo agreed, but she couldn't help the lack of hope that crept into her voice. If the Armorer noticed, she didn't comment on it.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After another restless night, Bo was back on the bridge when she heard something that made her head snap up.

"Lady Kryze!"

It was Axe. The tone of his voice made Bo's spirit lift.

He had something.

"What do you have?" She asked as soon as he crossed the doorway and into the room.

"I..it's…," he stopped to take a couple breaths, obviously he had run all the way to the bridge. "The Moff is leaving the base. I heard some of the guards talking about it. Apparently, he finished some sort of project and now he's going away for some meetings."

"How long?" Bo asked pointedly.

"I'm not sure. Probably just for the day. They didn't say anything about overnight. But they did say that he would be taking a lot of guards with him, including his Praetorian bodyguards."

"That's the opening we need. The base will probably be more lax while he's gone. Less organized. As they say, while the loth-cat is away, the scurries will play."

"Exactly."

They shared a look, each smiling slightly. The energy in the room had changed now that they had some good news. Bo's eyes were all the apology Axe needed, his nod was all the acceptance she needed. It was a benefit of having worked together as long as they had, they could shortcut past all the usual prattle and just get on with it.

"When does the Moff leave?" Bo asked, getting right back to the important job at hand.

"Tomorrow morning."

"Perfect."

"There's just one problem," Axe reminded her, holding up a finger to hold her excitement. "I still don't know where Din is."

He was right of course. They couldn't have the good fortune of Axe finding Din the moment the Moff went away. They didn't have that kind of luck.

"We can't wait. We're going to have to try anyway," she said in a tone that allowed no argument.

"I know," Axe agreed easily, already way ahead of her. "We're just going to have to try and search everywhere we can."

"Show me again on the map all the places that you know he's not, maybe we can narrow it down," Bo said, walking over to a console so Axe could pull up the image of the base.

Axe pulled it up and began pointing out the parts of the base where he had searched. The map was an amalgamation of the one Axe had scomped from the base and additional information he had added for the missing areas.

As they were going over the data, Bo noticed that Grogu had joined them, walking onto the console. The IG-12 unit was parked near the edge, where he had climbed out. She hadn't even heard him get into the suit and walk over to them.

"How are you, little one? Do you need something? Would you like something to eat?" Bo said, happy at least to see him moving around a little bit.

Grogu didn't respond. His eyes were no longer unseeing, Bo noticed. Rather, the child was looking very pointedly at the map.

As Bo and Axe watched curiously, Grogu walked straight up to one particular part of the image on the screen. He reached out a tiny hand and pointed to a hallway that was marked "storage". It was part of the base's original map and an area Axe had never been, not thinking it was important enough to check.

"What's up, kid? What do you see?" Axe said kindly. He knew the child was Force-sensitive so maybe there was a chance…

Bo and Axe looked at each other, getting the same idea at the same time.

"Do you think…?" Axe said to Bo, trying not to get too hopeful. The child could just be fascinated by the lights on the screen.

"Grogu," Bo turned to the child. "Is your dad there?"

Grogu continued to point and started to cry softly. Then he turned to Bo and nodded.

Bo felt tears in her eyes. She blinked them away before looking at Axe in triumph. When she did, she was surprised to see him looking almost as emotional as she felt.

It was time to get Din back.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After plans were made and the rescue team put together, Bo took Grogu back to her room so that they could both try and get some sleep. She knew it was probably a pointless endeavor but for the child's sake she had to try.

After she laid down, Bo found she was too wired to sleep. But Grogu fitfully nodded off, which was a relief.

Bo couldn't stop imagining what she might find tomorrow. An entire team was going to the base, but she knew that she had to be the one to get Din. The others would provide a distraction and pull any guards away from his location. But she needed to be alone when she found him.

It has to be me. I made his son a promise and I'm not going back on it.

She couldn't help but remember the night Din had pledged to follow her. Despite their differences, the other Mandalorian had become close to her. Maybe like another sibling, maybe like a best friend, maybe something else. She didn't think about it too much. His child had also become close to her. She could not fail either of them. Din was the whole reason their tribes were now working together.

Somehow, miraculously after countless years of civil wars, former Founding Din Djarin and his tiny child had brought the Mandalorians back together. Because of them, their people were now on the precipice of taking back their homeworld. She could not, would not let him die at the hands of the Empire. He didn't deserve that. His son didn't deserve to lose his father.

Din would gladly sacrifice his life to save any one of them, his son most of all. She was determined to make damn sure that wouldn't be necessary.

She was also going to make sure that she was the one who got Din out of whatever hell he was in on that base. Grogu had made it clear that Din's treatment was bad.

Very bad.

She didn't know what she would find when she got there and because of that she didn't want anyone else to find him. He wouldn't want that either, she was sure of that as well.

In a perfect world, Din wouldn't necessarily want her to see him in whatever awful condition he was in at the moment, but she hoped it would be easier with her. After all, she'd already saved his skin a couple of times. Not that she ever thought of it as a debt.

Din didn't owe anyone for saving his life. He had already prepaid for that in countless ways. Sure, the other Mandalorian had been a brutal bounty hunter, but he had also saved people, too. He had prepaid by bringing their clans back together and getting them back to their homeworld. He had also done it by getting the Darksaber away from Gideon.

Saving Din had given Bo the Darksaber back. She could save him a hundred times more before it came close to all that he had contributed to their people.

An interesting thought occurred to Bo as she lay there. The only reason Din Djarin usually ever needed saving was because he was constantly putting himself in danger to protect others, or to do something honorable like retake his oath to his Creed.

People who never got involved in anything dangerous or important also never needed protection. But men who put their necks out for others, sometimes they did need it. Especially those who had survived on their own for years with zero backup and still lived to tell the tale. Who cared if those men sometimes needed saving? Didn't they deserve it?

Suddenly Bo felt something come into the room. Or maybe it was just in her mind. Whatever it was, the presence (or thought?) was unmistakable.

Imagine Din was back.

Her quarters weren't completely dark as Grogu was still afraid of the blackness, but it was dark enough that it was hard to see the figment of Din. But the other Mandalorian was there. Standing across from the bed where she and his son lay.

The image wasn't clear, mostly just an outline. Something about him looked different but she couldn't put her finger on it. She wished she could see the face of his helmet, but his head was shadowed, only appearing as a silhouette.

"You can do this, Bo." Imagine Din said quietly. There was pain in his voice. It was so like the real Din that she had to shake her head. Even in his own agony, the man was trying to reassure someone else.

"Don't give up," Bo replied to the ghostly vision before her, willing the message to make it to the man himself. "Please, don't give up."

"I promise."

There was a single head nod then he vanished again. Bo hugged Grogu tighter, making a silent promise to the child that he would have his father back in less than a day, no matter what she had to do.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next morning everyone was in a frenzy. People were excited to finally be going on this rescue mission. Everyone in both clans knew what Din had done for them. By now all of them knew of the Mandalorian who had rescued a child who had once been his bounty from the Empire. They knew that same child had been trained by the Jedi. They knew that Din Djarin's actions had led them back to their homeworld. They also knew that they had been given a temporary home on Nevarro because of him.

Din would be surprised to find that he'd become a bit of a legend. The only reason he had done any of those things was to help. Help a child wanted by the Empire, help that child have the life he deserved, help his people get back to their home.

They all wanted him back. So many had volunteered, it had made Bo's heart happy. She and the Armorer had hand-picked the crew. They had chosen enough to get the job done, but not so many that it would be difficult to escape.

With all of the activity, and despite his own exhaustion caused by what was occurring with Din, Grogu realized something new was happening. He saw Bo getting ready to leave and he suddenly knew where they were going. They were going to get his father back.

They had decided the Armorer would not go on the mission so that she could look after Grogu and he could be with someone he knew. Also, she would make sure their medic was on standby, ready for the moment Din was returned to the cruiser.

Squeaking loudly, Grogu started to follow Bo in the IG-12 suit. The Armorer tried to hold the child back, but he pulled away from her.

"I'm sorry, Grogu. I can't take you," Bo said, stopping to reassure the child. He squeaked in reply, his ears drooping down and his eyes slanting in anger.

"This is too dangerous," Bo said to him, desperation in her voice. "Your dad would kill me if anything happened to you. You are very special but don't forget you are a Foundling. You still need a lot of training to go on a mission like this. I'm only taking our most highly trained people."

Grogu looked anything but convinced.

"You have to stay here, little one." Bo was talking quickly, looking over her shoulder at the others who were walking purposefully down the passageway. She wanted to reassure the child, but they needed to leave.

Grogu protested again, hitting a button on his little console.

"No."

Bo sighed. She hadn't thought this through and was kicking herself now. She should have had the Armorer keep the child in her quarters until they were away. She didn't want to cause him any more stress than he was already going through.

Bo reached out and held Grogu's small hand, bending down to look into his eyes. "You've already helped us so much. Without you we wouldn't know where to go. Please, allow us the honor of bringing your father back to you. Will you do that for us?" she pleaded, willing him to understand.

Grogu finally nodded, tears brimming in his large eyes. He hit another button on his console.

"Yes."

Bo sighed in relief. "Plus, I need you here. You have to keep in contact with your dad and let us know if his condition changes or they move him. Can you do that?"

Grogu's ears perked up and his eyes got a little brighter, happy to have a job and to be able to help. He hit the button again.

"Yes."

Minutes later the cruiser came out of hyperspace and they all ran out to the ramp so they could jetpack straight to the surface. They had decided not to transfer to a smaller ship for the drop.

They were depending on the Moff's absence to make the base less wary and give them a better chance at surprise. They also wanted a faster way to get Din back to the cruiser, not wanting to waste time transferring between ships. The plan was to get Din, steal a jetpack for him and all fly out together.

Judging by his willingness to leave the base, The Moff must think they had given up.

It's really the only good thing to come from how long it's taken to put this rescue mission together, Bo thought to herself as she jumped off the ship and ignited her jetpack.

Gideon must have thought that the Mandalorians had given up their homeworld. And given up on the one Mandalorian he held prisoner there.

The Moff was sorely mistaken.