A/N: Hi all! Welcome to the longest chapter I've ever written for a multi-chapter fic. Thanks again for the reviews and follows, etc.! Also, I wanted to mention quickly that this story is not connected to my other story called Reborn and Redeemed. I can't say why I mention that now as don't want to give any spoilers for this chapter. But I'll explain in another A/N at the end of the chapter. For now, enjoy!
-Moki
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Din Djarin was shivering.
The Mandalorian had stopped shifting on the bench a long while ago. He'd stopped trying to find a comfortable position to lie in. His body was too weak for him to care anymore. He still hurt, but it wasn't worth the effort to move.
Din hadn't expected to wake up after the last time he had lost consciousness. It had become a theme with him. Every time he fell asleep, he'd say a little goodbye to Grogu, to the world. But then he kept waking up again. At some point he knew that would have to stop.
Din shivered more violently on the bench, his teeth chattering hard enough that it hurt. He felt alternately hot and cold. Somewhere in his mind, some old training in first aid told him that this could be shock. Or maybe infection setting in on his many wounds. The wounds he couldn't see in the Darkness but could feel. Or it was just his body breaking down in general. Either way, it wasn't a good sign.
He felt his eyes pulling closed and gave his usual farewells.
I wonder if this is really it…
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The rescue team was gathered outside of the rocky cave entrance Axe had been using on his recon missions. He had already changed into the stormtrooper armor stored nearby and gone inside.
Axe was going to create some sort of diversion so they could infiltrate the base, then let them know when the area was cleared. Once inside, the team would take out any troopers foolish enough to stick around. Then they would continue to keep the enemy occupied while Bo made her way to Din's cell.
Bo was anxious to get moving, hating that she had to wait.
"Lady Kryze," Axe's voice came over the comm she had tucked in her armor near her shoulder.
"I'm here."
"Send them in."
"Let's go!" Bo waved her arm and the Mandalorian rescue squad moved as one. They could hear alarms and claxons screaming all over the base as they ran through the caves and then moved farther inside. Axe had evidently done his job.
The Imperial troops were running in a panic away from them, allowing the group to get well into the base before the first stormtrooper stopped and looked at them, realizing they didn't belong.
Here we go, Bo thought.
The Mandalorians opened fire, keeping the stormtroopers at bay.
"Go! We'll cover you!" Axe called as he appeared suddenly in the fray. He was running towards her from another direction, his stolen helmet gone and firing at the oncoming troopers.
Bo took off running, happy to find her way cleared.
When she reached the section where Grogu had said Din was, Bo slowed down. She heard voices from around the corner. Evidently the guards outside of Din's cell weren't heeding the warnings raised by Axe. She didn't know what kind of distraction he had drummed up and she didn't care, as long as it cleared out most of the base. If she had to deal with a few stragglers, so be it.
Bo kept her head tucked behind the wall, listening as the guards discussed their options. Hearing that they were occupied with their argument, she chanced a look around the corner and her head tipped in surprise to find a full troop of a dozen guards standing outside what must have been Din's door.
It spoke volumes about how much trouble he must have given them at some point, the fact that there was an entire garrison of stormtroopers guarding him. She smiled ruefully under her helmet. They'd had problems with the other Mandalorian, even if just during his initial capture. Enough that they must have doubled, if not tripled, the usual guard for a prisoner.
Bo heard the panicked calls from guards. Something about a coolant leak in the area.
Ah, so that's what Axe came up with, nice one.
"We must evacuate!" One guard was saying, as nearly all of his comrades nodded in agreement.
"What about the prisoner?" Another asked, but his voice was as hesitant as his desire to leave was evident.
"Leave him," the first guard said with a shrug. "The Moff wants him to die anyway, why should we carry him out?"
That remark made Bo snarl under her helmet, but she kept quiet.
The nervous guard squared his shoulders, deciding his duty (or his fear of Gideon) was more important than the risk of staying. "You go, I'm staying," he said finally.
Bo watched as the rest of the group took off down the passageway, luckily away from where she was hiding, leaving just the one guard outside of Din's door.
Not wasting another moment, Bo ran around the corner as soon as the others were out of sight. She didn't give the guard a chance to raise his weapon or call for help, she fired and watched as he dropped without a sound other than the clattering of his armor on the metal floor.
Standing alone outside of Din's door, Bo felt an annoying surge of nervousness hit her. She still had no idea what she was going to find inside that cell. Steeling herself with a deep breath, she hit the switch to open it.
Bo walked into the cell and then her steps just… stopped. She didn't gasp, she didn't speak, she simply ceased breathing and moving at the sight before her.
In that moment, Bo wasn't sure if the man she was looking at was even Din.
Bo had prepared herself for every horrible possibility of what Din might look like. She understood what could happen to a man after being held captive for so long. She wasn't surprised by how filthy he was and how mangled and torn his leathers and clothing were.
She wasn't even shocked by the missing helmet. Sadly, Bo knew that Gideon would probably have taken great pleasure in removing Din's helmet. She'd been prepared for that as well.
It wasn't the long beard or the matted state of his sweaty hair. Prisoners of war didn't have the privilege of personal hygiene. She knew all of that had been a possibility and again, she had prepared herself for it.
Some of it was the thinness of his body, visible in spots where his leathers and clothes were shredded, which also showed her the signs of horrible burns and other wounds she couldn't readily identify.
Beyond the injuries, the fact that they had been effectively starving Din was very evident. Bo hadn't quite prepared herself for that, hoping that Gideon would at least feed his prisoners. But she realized now that she shouldn't have disregarded how angry the Moff would've been at Din for making a fool of him. Taking away the child, not just once but multiple times. Beating him in hand-to-hand combat, even though Gideon had carried the Darksaber, then turning him over to the New Republic.
Judging by the state he was in, Bo could imagine that Din had never backed down once to the Moff, even after all the torture and the starvation. That would have angered Gideon and he had taken that out on Din by not even feeding him. The Moff had used everything in his power to break down the Mandalorian.
The dirt, the beard and long hair, the burns and other injuries on his body, the gaunt thinness. All of that she expected, even if she hadn't allowed herself to fully think about it.
But none of that compared to Din's face.
It wasn't just that she had never fully laid eyes on his face before. There had been the moment on the bridge of the cruiser, when the Jedi had come to get Grogu. But she and the others had kept their eyes mostly away from the sight of Din giving up his son. Even if he didn't call Grogu that at the time, even if he hadn't called him that yet, it was still true.
Din Djarin had not removed his helmet for any of them, it had only been done for Grogu. So, she and the others had really only seen the back of his head. Yet it still wasn't the sight of his face that unnerved her now.
It was that the face before her was barely a face any longer. Dried blood caked almost every inch of his head, covering his mouth and nose, even his ears. Black and blue marks were all over his features from many blows, some of them a sickly yellow.
Then there were his eyes. Bo had to clamp her jaws closed and breathe through her nose at the sight of them, as a horrified thought jumped into her mind unbidden.
Did he even have eyes?
Bo recoiled unconsciously from Din's face, his destroyed and broken face. Then she berated herself. The man had put up with awful brutality. She had suspected it before and now she had hard proof staring right at her. If he could endure that, the very least she could do was confront it. She reminded herself firmly this was a friend, a brother in arms.
As much as it hurt to look at the destruction of his eyes, she could only imagine the pain of having survived it.
Blackened bruises, burn marks, more caked blood, that was all there was where eyes should have been. It looked like something incredibly hot had been put directly on (or in) Din's eyes. The blackened skin was the worst, making it impossible to tell at a glance whether his eyes were severely injured, or not there at all.
Taking a quiet breath, Bo forced herself to look closer and after a few moments was reassured that she wasn't looking at empty sockets. Her inspection showed that his eyelids were intact, if grotesquely swollen. He should still have his eyes. What shape they were in, that was a question for another time.
Din hadn't immediately reacted to her presence, and a new fear overcame her. He was lying on the narrow bench that barely qualified as a cot and once she got past the shock of his eyes, Bo realized he hadn't moved since she had entered. He appeared to be asleep (or unconscious), but he was so still, she wasn't sure.
As she watched, Din slowly became aware of someone else in the room. He turned his head toward her as if responding to a noise but didn't seem to see her. It was then that she put together everything she had observed about his condition, about his eyes. Why had it taken her so long to come to the inevitable conclusion?
Din was blind.
Suddenly things clicked into place. Grogu's screams from the terrible night a few days ago, the child's unseeing eyes, the fact that he'd stopped eating and drinking.
The poor child.
The poor father.
As Din noticed her presence, she watched a myriad of emotions travel across his features. Surprise like he'd been jolted awake, though his body barely moved. A flinch that she didn't take immediately for fear. It was more like pain. Like the sound of her slight movements had actually physically hurt him, which wasn't surprising given the injuries she could see.
All of that passed quickly and then came a quiet resolve. She saw him take a deep breath and then slowly and agonizingly pull himself into a sitting position. He had resigned himself to his fate and was ready to take whatever else they were going to dish out.
In that moment he was formidable. Without his helmet, covered in blood, his face a bloodied mess. He was still a Mandalorian.
She wondered how many of Gideon's people had suffered their own broken bones and bruises when they first captured Din. Some might have even gotten off worse. She would bet her armor that Din gave just as good as he got, at any opportunity he found. At least in the beginning, before the injuries added up, before starvation had weakened him to the point where he could no longer fight.
Once he was upright, the Mandalorian warrior held his head up with quiet determination. Apparently waiting for whatever else Gideon had in store for him.
Bo's heart clenched at his bravery. Even as broken and battered as he was, he wasn't going down without a fight.
"Din..?" She hadn't meant to say it out loud. It was a question, not of who he was, more of whether he was okay, how he had survived, how he had the strength to sit up straighter in that moment, a million things she wanted to ask that were so unimportant right then.
"Bo…?" he gasped in reply.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Din had been deep asleep (or unconscious, he wasn't going to worry about semantics) when he heard an unusual sound. Unusual because he hadn't heard it in a long while.
It sounded like the door to his cell opening, but since there was no light and no other sound, he assumed that he had imagined it.
Then he heard soft footsteps, as if someone were standing nearby and had shifted their weight. It hurt his head to wonder why they still weren't turning on the lights. But Din assumed that Gideon had finally decided to bring him back to the debriefing room for more of his sick version of "fun."
Din hated that he flinched, but the noise had caught him off guard. He'd been struggling between wakefulness and unconsciousness for days, his energy flagging with each passing hour. Or day? Or Week? Time had been hard to determine once he'd been plunged into full-time Darkness.
Din was extremely weak but something in him still wouldn't let them see him give up, so he'd put as much strength as he could into sitting up. He didn't think he could walk though, so he waited to see if they would drag him out.
And then he'd heard something else. Someone whispering his name. Someone he knew.
Din dismissed the thought immediately. His befuddled brain was teasing him again, letting him hear familiar voices as part of its dying throes.
Yet he couldn't help responding, hoping that maybe he was wrong.
"Bo..?" Din's voice was cracked from countless hours of screaming, lack of water and now days of unuse.
"It's me, Din. We're getting you out of here."
Din still couldn't let himself quite believe it, not until he felt her sit next to him on the bench. Then his thoughts went straight to the most important person in his life. If Bo was real, if she was actually there in the room, then that meant he had a chance to see Grogu again.
"Grogu? Where is…?" Din asked anxiously.
"He's okay," Bo reassured the worried father.
Of course his first thought would be for his child, Bo thought. It made a lump form in her throat. But it was replaced instantly by anger. Moff Gideon had done unspeakable things to a man like this. A man who had been through hell and still whose first thought was for his kid.
"He's fine. He's back in the cruiser with the Armorer," Bo said. "He's waiting for you. Let's get you out of here."
"Okay.." Din seemed dazed, moving sluggishly. Bo wasn't sure if he could even walk on his own, but she was afraid to touch him and cause him more pain.
Din made no immediate attempt to move. Finally, he turned to her.
"Bo…?" It was tentative, softer than Din's usual voice.
"Yes?"
"Can you turn on the lights? I can't see my armor."
Bo's breath caught, and she fought hard to keep from choking out a small sob.
He doesn't remember.
Bo carefully touched Din's shoulder, not only afraid of causing him the slightest amount of pain but also of shocking him with her touch. She knew the only contact he'd had in a while had been made to create agony.
But at her soft hand on his shoulder, Din felt himself lean into it, seeking any sort of comforting human contact after being alone so long.
"Din," she said quietly, kindly. "The lights…are on. Your eyes…"
Bo hesitated, not sure how to tell a man that he was blind. That his eyes were so destroyed she wasn't sure if he would ever see again.
"My eyes…" Din repeated slowly as a memory clicked into place. It wasn't a lot. Mostly it was just pain. But it was the location of the pain. A memory of a very specific pain.
The Moff had done something to his eyes. The lights weren't off. They hadn't been turned off in a long while. He just couldn't see them.
I'm blind.
"Din, I'm so …" Bo started, seeing from the look on his face that he finally understood.
"I'm alright," Din said, forcing his voice to sound a lot stronger than he felt. "I… know. It's okay. I can make it. Get me out of here."
She wanted to say more but instead she just said, "Okay."
"Can you… help me find my armor. I think it's under the bench," Din said, pulling himself up straighter. She saw him flinch at the pain the movement caused.
Not sure how else she could help at that moment, as they needed to get him out of there, Bo complied with his wishes.
Bo had already noticed Din's armor and the way it had been tossed aside like unimportant trash. Like Din himself had been tossed aside. It was more insulting than if Gideon had stolen the armor for himself. Throwing it aside like that showed how little the Moff cared, or maybe just how angry he had been at the Mandalorian.
"Yes, it's here," Bo said, reaching under the bench and pulling out the armor. She carefully stacked it next to Din. She didn't shame him by helping him put it back on, putting on one's armor was important for a Mandalorian, almost sacred. Instead, she started to hand him pieces to make the process go faster.
She noticed Din's gloves were in the pile. She handed them to him first.
"Gloves," Bo said simply, and Din reached for them.
Din tugged the double-layered gloves on, hissing at the pain they caused the burns on his hands but happy to have them back.
Bo next handed him his cuisses, first the left then the right. Soon they had a rhythm going and Bo found that she didn't have to say what piece was coming next, because Din already knew. Working together smoothly, they steadily got the Mandalorian back into his armor.
As each piece was returned to its rightful place, Din felt a little bit of his strength returning. He was going to need to rally as much as he could. This journey wasn't over, and he was about to face what could be one of his biggest challenges.
Din was no fool, he knew he was in bad shape. But he had to make it out and get back to Grogu. He had to get well so that he could help take back Mandalore, and hopefully he could be the one to kill the Moff, or at least be there when it happened.
Unlike the first time Din had beaten the Moff, he had no mercy now. He didn't want the man to go to trial, they'd already seen how that hadn't worked. Gideon would probably just escape again. Anyone as evil as the Moff had to die. It was that simple.
As they continued with the armor, Din accepted some help with the parts of the cuirass that ran along his back. Normally it wasn't an issue, but with burns on his hands and on the skin of his chest and back, it helped to have another reach the places it hurt for him to reach.
They had gotten to the last pieces of armor when Bo's comm crackled to life, she pulled it closer to hear better through the static.
"I'm fine," Din said, letting her talk to whoever it was. His hearing was somewhat muffled from the beatings and other damage done to his head, and he couldn't hear what was being said through the static. But he could tell it was urgent. They probably needed to get moving.
Din could feel his pauldrons and helmet on the bench next to him and reached for the pauldrons first. He put the left one on, then paused a moment to run his fingers over his signet on the right one before putting it on as well.
Bo got up, still talking to Axe on her comm. She looked out the open cell door, checking the passageway outside for any troops.
Din finished putting on the last pieces of his armor. It was instinctual. Automatic. With each piece he put on, he felt more and more like himself. A beaten, painful version of himself, but still.
When he felt the helmet sitting next to him, Din hadn't stopped to think. He hadn't thought of the ramifications. He had no idea just how ruined his face was. It was probably a blessing that the top layer of skin and tissue was so damaged and that the nerves had been long dead for days. As for the deeper pain, he'd grown accustomed to that. It was sad to say that it almost felt normal.
It felt natural and right to put his helmet on. When had doing that ever been the wrong thing to do? When had that action, that simple action, ever brought him pain? Usually it brought pride, joy, inspiration, determination, whatever he needed.
In that moment, Din had no way to know that this time, the helmet would betray him. That the helmet he swore to wear as part of his very creed as a man was about to become a bitter enemy, one capable of punishment he never thought to receive from that source.
"Okay, I think the coast is clear," Bo was saying as she finished looking out in the passageway. "Let's get you out of here."
Bo turned back to look at Din, only to raise her hands in horror.
"No, wait. Din, don't!"
Bo saw that Din had completed assembling his armor and was automatically reaching for his helmet. In that horrified instant, she could see that he must have forgotten how injured his eyes and face were, or he simply didn't know. It's not like he'd been able to look in a mirror.
Unfortunately, Bo's words of warning were too little too late.
Din began to slide the helmet over his head. Once the heavy beskar hit his forehead, the skin broke over the burns. He felt the pain but was unable to stop the helmet from continuing to move downward, partially over his eyes. He gasped tight breaths as he was suddenly hit with a new agony.
Bo was at his side instantly, steadying the helmet.
"Okay, I got it. Just hang on one second," she fought to not let her voice show the fact that there were tears in her eyes, grieving for the additional and unnecessary pain Din was now going through.
Bo assessed the situation quickly, inwardly cursing as she realized that the helmet was now over the injured man's eyes. Sliding it down further would cause more damage but taking it off would as well. Finally, she took the lesser of two evils and began to slowly pull it back up. They'd need it off anyway, to treat him when they got him back.
As the helmet pulled at his skin, Din thought he was going to pass out. Bright spots danced in front of his dark vision, making him dizzy and causing him to sway on the bench.
Gideon's cruelty had yielded one benefit, it had helped Din to not feel the pain of his wounds. Being left alone in his cell for so long meant that the Mandalorian had received no outside stimulation. No sound, no light, no touch.
But now there was noise, there was light. Even if he couldn't physically see the light, Din's body was still responding to the stimulus, and now there was the touch of the hard beskar, the tearing on his ruined skin, and his eyes.
It was just… too much. The thin wall Din had managed to put up to keep the pain at bay suddenly dissolved and he was overwhelmed by a tidal wave of agony. It crashed over Din, drowning him as it slammed relentlessly against his senses. Every part of his body that was injured started sending desperate signals to tell him that he was hurt. Messages ran along every nerve-ending, from all the corners of his abused body until he couldn't make sense of any of them. In the onslaught, Din couldn't tell what hurt, he didn't remember why, he couldn't tell which injury was the worst – though his eyes were winning the battle at the moment.
If he'd had the energy, Din might have screamed. But he was a bit screamed-out at the moment.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Lightyears away at that exact moment, Grogu suddenly jumped with a soft, frightened coo. He whimpered and covered his eyes until the sounds caught the attention of the Armorer.
She looked at him sadly, knowing there was nothing she could do. Din was suffering, but she'd expected that. He just needed to hold out a little longer, and so did his son.
"Don't give up on him yet, Grogu. Your father is a Mandalorian and one of the strongest men I know. He will come back to you. Give him time. We knew this part would be hard."
Grogu looked at her with eyes that glinted with tears, but he nodded.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Din continued to breathe in and out, forcing himself to control at least that part of his body as the pain kept up its relentless torment.
He kept his mouth tightly closed, but he still couldn't help the moans that came out of him. He attempted to control the pain by huffing, his breath coming out in staccato humming noises through his nose as he rocked back and forth in agony.
"Okay, okay, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere, you're not alone," Bo said, her voice shaking with the emotion of watching her friend go through pain she couldn't imagine.
"Take my hand and…"
Bo almost said, "Look at me." But she caught herself before making the blunder.
"…listen to my voice. You're all right. You've got this, Din. You can do this."
Mindful of the painful-looking burns she had seen before he put on his gloves, Bo didn't attempt to grip Din's hands. She just put her own hands out and let him take hold of hers with as much pressure as he needed.
Din found Bo's voice soothing. It was a small shaft of light that broke through the curtain of pain that seemed like it would never end. Her voice and her hands gave him something to hold onto as he struggled his way out of his agony-filled world. He'd been tossed into that world faster than he'd been ready for, unable to put up any defenses against it.
Bo leaned close as the injured man continued to rock and puff his breath to stay in control.
"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay," Bo said over and over. She repeated it as a litany, feeling Din's hands squeeze hers tighter every time she felt another shock hit him again.
Din continued to grip her hands, holding tight to them and to her voice. It was the only thing allowing him to keep the tiny thread he had on sanity. If she hadn't been there, he wasn't sure what he would have done. At that moment, it wasn't unreasonable for him to think that he could have died from the pain and shock.
"You're okay, Din. You've got this. You're getting out of here. Just stay with me and I'll get you out so you can see your son. He misses you."
Bo kept talking, giving the beaten and blinded man reasons to keep fighting, something to hang onto in the darkness of his solitary agony. It was all she could do, but she wished she could take some of the pain onto herself. Without that option, her presence, her voice, her hands would have to do.
Every time Din thought he had a handle on it, another wave of pain would roll through his body. He was beginning to feel like it was never going to end and that made feelings of panic start to creep in. But Bo's presence kept those feelings from fully taking control.
Bo could see it wasn't just the pain, it was all of it. The trauma of everything that had happened to him in that place was adding to his agony. He was panicking, unable to get ahead of the pain. His breathing was getting ragged, and Bo knew his body couldn't afford that.
"Din you have to breathe. Just keep breathing. You've got this. You can do this. You're stronger than anyone I know," Bo continued to encourage him quietly, helping the only way she knew how.
It had been so long since Din had felt the touch of another person whose purpose wasn't simply to hurt him. Without his eyes, Bo's hands had become important. A small thread he could hold onto as he fought his way back from the agony flowing through his body.
"Come on, Din. Don't give up on me now. We're so close. Just stay with me a little longer and we'll have you home and back with your son," Bo kept her voice low, afraid that even that noise might add to his agony.
Din heard her words, but they sounded far away. Like she was talking to him from the end of a long tunnel, and he was fighting to walk towards her. Except there was no light for him to find.
This new agony was the hardest thing he's had to endure in a while. He had been given a moment of hope, an idea that maybe pain would not be a part of his future. And now that idea had been snatched from him viciously.
It had almost been easier before. When he'd been alone, tossed back in his cell, without much hope of escape or survival, Din had become numb. It made the pain, both physical and mental, easier to bear.
But now he had a sliver of a chance for escape. He was feeling hope for the first time in he didn't know how long. He wanted to move, to run, to get out. But his body was reminding him forcefully of all the damage that had been done.
I have to make it out. For the kid. There's no other choice.
That thought gave Din a new resolve.
"I won't give up," he said it quietly, mostly to himself, in reply to Bo's last request. "I promise."
After what felt like hours for both of them, but was only a few minutes, Din took a deep breath and sighed. His body slowly stopped its pained rocking and he stilled, except for some slight tremors she felt through their connected shoulders and hands.
"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay," he said finally, echoing Bo's litany and tipping his head upward. Not wanting to spend another minute in that place, he turned to her with sightless eyes that still seemed to peer at her with a request. "Get me out of here."
"Gladly," Bo said, her sigh echoing his.
At the same time, the Armorer heard a new noise from her small charge. Grogu looked up, his eyes clearer than they'd been in days. He no longer looked like he was in a near-trance. He was wider awake than he had in a while.
Grogu turned to her and cooed almost happily. The Armorer smiled under her helmet and sighed in relief.
They have him, he's alive.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Bo gently helped Din to his feet, again not putting pressure anywhere on his body, just allowing him to hold onto her as he needed. But as he stood, Din nearly dropped, and Bo was forced to catch him under his arms.
The damage to Din's face was the most obvious, but she realized there was so much more that wasn't as easily seen. He tried standing again and one of his legs gave out suddenly. Bo caught him again as he leaned on her heavily.
"Is it broken?" Bo asked in surprise, looking down at his leg.
"Yeah…" Din's voice was unsure.
"Damn it Din, why didn't you tell me?" Bo couldn't help the slight rebuke in her tone. She would have helped him more had she known he needed it. She hated that at every turn, he just kept on suffering, and she was somehow just as powerless to stop it while standing next to him as she had been on a ship lightyears away.
"I had honestly forgotten," Din replied.
Bo was shocked by his tone, the man seemed genuinely surprised to discover he couldn't walk on his leg.
"It…was a while ago," Din continued as they worked together to get him upright and balanced again. "They had a droid reset it, but I guess it's still weak."
Bo shook her head. She had no doubt that the procedure had been done without any painkillers. But it made her wonder what other kinds of horrors you could inflict on a man to make him forget he had a broken leg?
Suddenly Bo's comm squawked to life again. Din was too busy trying to keep his balance to hear who it was, but he caught the urgency. They needed to go, now.
He heard her ask whoever it was to come to their location, saying she needed backup.
"Give me a weapon," Din ground out, leaning against the wall as another fresh wave of pain rolled through his body. Whether from his leg, his eyes, or any of the other countless injuries, he couldn't tell.
"Din, it's okay. Just stay there. We can…" Bo protested.
"Just do it!" He didn't intend to sound angry, but he was getting tired, he was in a lot of pain, and he just wanted to move.
Bo's eyebrows shot up at his tone. That voice didn't invite any argument and in a strange way, she was happy to hear him snap at her. It was a good sign. He was going to need to keep fighting like that to get through the rest of this journey.
Besides, Bo reminded herself, a blinded Mandalorian (especially Din Djarin) was still better backup, and probably a better shot, than most stormtroopers.
Bo ran to the fallen trooper outside of Din's cell and snatched the man's blaster. She trotted back to Din and gingerly put it in his hand.
"Stormtrooper blaster, best I can do," she said.
"That's fine, thanks," Din said quietly, an apology evident in his tone, though he didn't come outright and say it.
"No problem."
"Just tell me if any friendlies end up in our area."
"Will do."
"I'm ready, let's go," Din said with a nod, pushing himself off the wall.
"Hang on." Bo was fumbling with something. When Din heard the sound of beskar clanking against the metal of the bench, he realized what it was.
My helmet.
He heard her movements pause as she tried to figure out what to do with the final piece of his armor. Din was going to need help walking and they both needed to hold blasters. They were out of hands.
"My cloak?" Din asked softly.
Bo looked up, not realizing that he'd been aware of what she was doing. She had already put Din's cloak around his shoulders, and she thought it best he kept it there. She was afraid that adrenaline was hiding shock and he'd probably need the warmth of his cloak during their journey out.
Din heard her hesitancy, and he got what she was thinking. He was probably going to need his cloak.
"Wait," he said, reaching to his belt for anything they could use. But the Moff's guards had pretty much stripped him of everything he'd had when he arrived in his cell. Then an idea hit him.
"What about your grappling line?" Din asked.
"Great idea," Bo said. She released the line from her vambrace and wrapped it a few times around the helmet, just underneath the controls on the sides. She then wrapped it a few times over the top and used the grappling hook to hold everything together.
Din heard her start to attach the helmet to her own belt.
"No," he said, holding out his hand. "Give it to me."
"Of course," she acquiesced, handing him the end of the line. Din didn't need his eyes to attach it to his belt. He may not have been able to put it back on his head, but it still felt good to have his helmet again.
"Alright, let's go," Bo said. She walked over and put her right shoulder under his left shoulder, taking Din's left hand and pulling it around her neck.
Din didn't bother to try and protest. He needed the help, there was no use in denying it or arguing about it. Besides, it wasn't as if he could see where he was going anyway.
Din felt it when they walked out of the cell door and his fingers gripped reflexively over the trigger guard of the confiscated blaster.
It had been so long since he'd held a weapon.
The leather of his gloves tugged at the wounds in his hands and the weapon put pressure on the sore areas. It hurt but it also felt good. Familiar. It buoyed Din against the weakness that was lapping at the edges of his body, aching to steal his consciousness back. The weapon helped him to fight it off, just as it would help him fight off any enemy that had the misfortune of getting into his line of fire.
Eyes or no eyes, pain or no pain, some people were going to pay for what had been done to him.
They made their way slowly through the passageways. At first, they didn't find anyone else, but soon they ran into a couple of stormtroopers. Bo guided Din up against a wall as she fired and took out the small group. Then she gently pulled him forward again.
When they ran into more troopers and another firefight broke out, Din listened to where the shooting was coming from. He picked out Bo's blaster easily and heard the multiple grunts and cries as she hit her targets. Then he heard the rhythmic cadence of running footsteps coming on their left flank. Stormtroopers, he knew that sound anywhere. Using the noise as a guide, Din started firing. He used his non-firing hand to find cover and ducked behind a beam in the walls.
Bo looked over her shoulder after hearing the blaster fire and was impressed by how many troopers the other Mandalorian was hitting.
Unaware of her scrutiny, Din kept firing, happy that he was able to help. It wasn't that he had somehow gained the ability of heightened senses after a few days (or weeks? He honestly didn't know) of being blind. This was purely training. Mandalorians were prepared for a variety of battle scenarios, darkness being one of them. He and his fellow foundlings had trained at night to learn how to trust their ears to find their targets. Sometimes the training involved turning their visors down to pitch black, picking off their quarry with nothing but sound and feel.
It's why the Darkness hadn't bothered him at first. Though they'd never thought to train for being trapped without light for days at a time. He might have a talk with the Trainers the next time he was there to watch the drills. Maybe they should increase the time they did exercises in darkness.
As they moved farther toward their escape route, they continued to fight their way through whatever troopers they came across along the way. During one of the firefights, Din inadvertently ran into a wall, putting together a colorful string of curses as more bolts of pain went through his body.
Bo heard the cusses from behind her. She hated that he was in pain, but at least if he was cussing, he was still alive. It was better than passing out on her.
"I'm really glad your kid didn't hear that," she said, trying to keep the mood light.
Incredibly, Din almost chuckled. It came out as more of a hiss, but she was happy to see him fighting so hard. It reassured her that the man she knew was still under there.
But after a while, it became clear that Din's strength was waning. Bo noted the weariness of his steps, perhaps more than another might have noticed. She knew his walk and that wasn't typical. Her fears were confirmed when Din stumbled hard. Amazingly, he stayed upright.
Axe finally caught up to them and though her comrade tried to hide it, she saw him react to how Din looked. Axe's steps paused at the sight of Din's face, but there was no reaction in his voice when he spoke.
"We need to get out of here."
Bo could almost bless Axe for how quickly he went from horror and sympathy to anger and resolve. She saw him push it all down. He wasn't doing it for her or even for Din (who couldn't see his reaction anyway) but rather just making the decision to move on. To do what he could now for the man in front of him.
They shared a quick look. Both of them were ready to kill Gideon for what he'd done to Din. The Moff was lucky he wasn't there. His death couldn't come soon enough.
Axe provided cover fire as they got closer to the rendezvous point.
Din was getting heavy. Bo was strong but even in his weakened starving state, the other Mandalorian was bigger than her. Bearing most of his weight was wearing her out, even if she hated to admit it.
Din's injuries were taking their toll as he fought to keep walking. Bo knew about the barely healed broken leg, the eyes, the other burns. But she wondered now how many other injuries were hidden from her view? How many he had forgotten about when new ones were given to him in the darkness?
Axe noticed them slowing and immediately saw the issue.
"Here, I'll take him." He walked over to them and took Din's other arm, he hooked it over his shoulder, transferring all of the wounded man's weight off of Bo. "Lean on me, Din."
Bo nodded her thanks, then moved to take the cover position in front of them.
"Thanks." Din said weakly.
"Not a problem, we're almost there."
Din noticed that the armor under his arm felt different.
"Are you in a stormtrooper uniform?" Din said in surprise.
"Yep. I've been sneaking in for weeks looking for you and gathering intel. I'm sorry we couldn't make it before now. They had you in an unmarked area," Axe kept talking as he helped Din keep walking forward. "I'm such an idiot, I should have thought to look in this area."
"No, I would have done the same. You worked with the intel you had. I'm just glad you found me when you did," Din said gratefully.
"Actually, your kid found you."
"What?" Din's steps stumbled and Axe was forced to tighten the grip on Din's hand that was over his shoulder, wrapping an additional arm around the other man's chest to keep him upright. Din felt the pain of Axe's hold on his hand and midsection, but he was too preoccupied to care.
"Grogu?" Din questioned.
"Yep, little guy saw us looking at a map, walked right over to it and pointed straight to your cell. If I hadn't seen it happen, I never would have believed it. Your boy is definitely special."
"Yeah, he is." Din agreed with pride, a smile crossing his face even as he grunted through another wave of pain.
Suddenly they were hit with multiple rounds of blaster fire. Axe tucked Din behind an outcropping as they arrived in the caves. Din felt behind him and realized where they were, it meant they were closer to getting out. It couldn't come soon enough. He didn't know how much longer he could continue to walk.
Listening as he had before, Din helped provide cover fire for Axe and Bo. He didn't see it, but Axe gave him a shocked look of admiration when he figured out that the blind man was providing cover fire and doing a damn good job at it.
"Din! Friendlies!" Bo called out suddenly.
But Din had already dropped his blaster. He knew the sound of a garrison of Mandalorians when he heard one.
"Bo," Axe said simply, his eyes going to Din's face as the others came closer.
Bo knew what he hadn't said aloud, and she agreed, already moving forward to take care of it. They shouldn't let the others see Din this way. Not without his helmet and not with the horrific injuries so evident. Din wouldn't want that.
"Din. Here, hang on," Bo arrived at his side. She quickly gathered Din's cloak and fashioned it into a makeshift hood, pulling it over his face and covering him from prying eyes.
It wasn't much but it would help protect some semblance of his Creed, as well as hide what he now knew were awful injuries to his face and eyes. Din appreciated the gesture. If Grogu was anywhere nearby when they arrived on the cruiser, he didn't want the kid to see him and get frightened.
Din was growing more aware of what his face must look like. The pain was coming back and along with it some of the memories. He tried not to think about whether or not he'd ever see again. For now, he just wanted out of this place and to get back to Grogu. He'd worry about the rest later.
Bo finished her ministrations, tugging the cloak tighter around his neck, hoping it might keep him slightly warmer. They couldn't ignore the fact that shock was continuing to be more of an issue. Din's adrenaline was wearing off with each passing moment, she could feel him shaking as she adjusted the cloak on his shoulders and the hood on his head. They needed to move fast.
Din felt what she did, and he appreciated it. He reached for her hand as she pulled the makeshift hood farther over his face.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Bo didn't feel like it would be right to say "you're welcome" for something like that, but he wouldn't see her nod. So, she squeezed his hand lightly in return.
"Come on, let's get you out of here. Your kid is waiting for you."
Axe came back to them as the rest of the recue team took out the stormtroopers blocking their way.
The group didn't react to the sight of Din stumbling and shivering as he walked shakily next to Axe. They simply got into a tighter formation, putting the two men in the center as they led them to the exit. Bo joined them, ready to help Din on the other side if he needed it.
As they got closer to the outside, one of the rescuers approached Bo quietly. It was a member of Din's Covert.
"Lady Kryze," he didn't say anything else, but he held a jetpack in his hands. It was white, obviously taken from an unfortunate stormtrooper. Bo took it, and as they got close enough to see the cave opening up ahead, she held up a fist.
The group stopped as one, Axe putting a steadying hand on Din's chest to stop his stumbling steps. Bo walked up to Din and spoke to him quietly.
"Din, we're going to fly out of here. I've got a jetpack for you, okay?"
Din could only nod silently, his head hung low, hidden under the hood.
Bo was glad Gideon had made the jetpack from standard Mandalorian specs. She didn't want to think of how he had gotten those specs, that was a thought for another time. But at least it fit correctly on Din's back armor.
"Okay, here we go. Everyone ready?" Bo said once she had Din's pack secured.
Bo received nods from the team.
"Axe, I'll activate it. Can you stay with him and control his ascent and descent? I'm going to fly close cover."
"Of course," Axe got ready to activate his own pack, keeping an arm on Din. It would be tricky to fly them both, but he would die before he let anything happen to the other Mandalorian.
"Everybody else, stay in formation. Do not break! No matter what!"
Many voices called out. "Yes, Lady Kryze!"
"Alright, here we go." Bo nodded at Axe in warning, then hit the manual control on the back of Din's borrowed jetpack. Axe hit his at the exact same time, and almost as if they had practiced it a million times before, he and Din launched in synchronized flight.
Luckily the team had done their job on the ground as they found their flight blissfully unencumbered by enemies. Axe kept his strong grip on Din throughout the flight, trying as hard as he could not to hurt the other man, but not wanting him out of his control.
As they flew, Axe felt something change in Din. His head drooped further, and his body shook harder. He was losing consciousness.
Axe got himself ready to take all of Din's weight when they landed. He didn't think the other man was going to last much longer and he was grateful they were nearly there.
Bo spoke to the bridge from her comm as they came closer to the landing area.
"Be ready to jump into hyperspace on my mark!"
"Yes, Lady Kryze!"
The team flew closer to the ship. They reached the cruiser, and all landed together. Bo looked to ensure all were inside then she ordered the jump.
As the ship jumped, she looked over to find Din collapsing as Axe lowered him to the ground. All the strength had gone out of Din's legs, and she ran to them in a panic.
Come on, Din. Don't give up on me now.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
A/N: And there you go! So, the reason I didn't want this story connected to Reborn and Redeemed is that of course Bo sees Din's face in that other story. But I really wanted her to not have seen his face before as I felt it would hit that much harder when she saw it now.