The salty sea air wrapped around my senses. I took in a deep breath as I lent on the railing of the boat. The scent was almost calming, if it weren't for the contrasting smell of the old fishing boat that we were standing on.

The boat rocked lightly as the waves lapped against the sides in a rhythmic motion. The sky overhead was a light gray. The sun hardly managed to shine through it. It mirrored the colour of the dark ocean. I found the gloomy weather to be strangely comforting. Perhaps it was because the colour mirrored the beskar armor of Din Djarin.

The man in question was standing to my left while the child's pram was to my right. He was standing stoically beside me, even though I wasn't looking at him, the feeling of his presence brought me comfort.

"Coming around." I heard a man on the boat shout.

"Try the other side." Another man replied to him

"Oh, give me! Yeah, thank you." A man replied. They had been fishing while taking us to the mandalorians. I turned my head to look at them and saw them pulling a net over towards the side of the boat.

"Over the side!" One of them called out.

"You ever see a mamacore eat? Quite a sight." A man said to us as he looked over at the water.

Din and I didn't reply to the man. The tension in the air now felt awkward. The man seemed slightly annoyed by our lack of response.

"Child might take an interest." The man said. The child caught my attention when he cooed up at us. He looked like he wanted to see a mamacore eat.

"You should take a look." The man insisted. Alarm bells were starting to ring in my head again but I don't know why.

Din sighed and turned towards the man. "Come on over here." The man gestured for Din to follow him.

I hesitated before I followed Din and the child over to the large hole in the boat where the mamacore was being held. I still had a bad feeling deep within me.

"Get a good view. Let the kid see." The man insisted. I walked over to the large grating on the floor with Din by my side. I was trying to push down the feeling of unease but it didn't seem to want to go away.

"All right, close enough." Din said cautiously as we stopped near the edge.

The man grunted as he pushed the net full of fish towards the hole. "Then here we go."

The grating quickly retracted so the man could dump the fish into the massive tank. Once the net was hovering over the water, the bottom opened up and dropped the fish into the pool of water.

The water immediately came to life. It was bubbling at the surface like it was being boiled. I couldn't see anything else though, the creature was pretty well hidden.

"She must be hungry. Oftentimes we'll feed her in the early morning, but we missed that cause we were goin' out of port!" Suddenly, the man swung a pole at the child's pram and knocked him into the water. The pram hovered in the middle of the tank just above the water.

"No!" Din and I cried out at the same time. My heart was beating rapidly at the sight. I knew something wasn't right here. I just wished I had listened to myself.

In a panic, I reached my hand out to try and use my power. It worked for a moment, the child's pram began to move towards me. But I wasn't fast enough. The mamacore jumped out of the water and wrapped its sharp teeth around the pram. I saw the child quickly close his pod before he disappeared into the mouth of the beast.

My heart felt like it stopped and all I could think of was getting to the child. Without even thinking about it, I leapt over into the water, diving head first into the freezing cold darkness.

I could sense that Din was beside me. The two of us had clearly had the same idea. I swam down through the dark water as hard as I could. Pushing through the water to try and get to the child. I could feel the freezing temperature soaking into my bones. Leaving an intense chill in its wake.

My lungs burned for oxygen as I tried to keep swimming, it seemed that this pool was deeper than I had realised.

I knew that I couldn't go on any longer so I began to swim upwards. I kicked my legs and arms as hard as I could, I needed to take a breath of air now.

After what felt like an eternity of swimming, my head burst through the water and I gasped harshly, desperately trying to get air into my lungs again. 

I looked up and my heart dropped. They had closed the grate over the top of us. We were trapped. I raised my arms and grabbed onto the metal grating, holding on tightly so I wouldn't slip back under again.

"Get him! Get him! There we go!" I heard voices come from above. I looked over and saw Din holding onto the grating as well.

"Din!" I called out as the men prodded him with their sticks, trying to push him back under the water. They were relentless as they shoved against him. After a moment Din coughed and fell back under the water.

"No. Stop!" I cried out. My heart was beating painfully in my chest. I had to find a way out of this. I wasn't going to be taken out by a bunch of lowlifes.

"We're rich, brothers!" I could hear them all laughing. The feeling of rage began to rise in my chest.

I looked around the surrounding area and saw that there wasn't anything down here that would help me. I hesitated for a moment before I let go of the grating and raised my right hand above me. I focused all my emotions on the grating above me, the metal creaked slightly and almost threatened to move.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" A man yelled angrily at me. Before I could even react, a metal pole came down on my head and pushed me back under the water.

The pain in my head disorientated me for a moment as I sunk into the dark depths. A bright light flashed past my eyes, I had a feeling it was Din coming back for round two with the men above.

My lungs burned as I slowly sank towards the bottom. I needed to breathe desperately. I don't know how long I can keep this up before I drown. I could feel my body beginning to strain from the lack of oxygen. I tried to swim upwards again but I wasn't going anywhere fast. My body felt too weak to try and get back to the surface.

My heart beat was beginning to slow, I felt panicked but I didn't feel like I could do anything about it. I needed to get back up to the surface again.

My throat felt like it was closing up as I desperately held my breath. I moved my arms again and desperately began to swim upwards. I couldn't give up. Not now.

Suddenly, a hand wrapped tightly around my arm and began to pull me up. My eyes burned as I tried to hold my breath just a little longer. We moved quickly towards the surface. My head shot out of the water and I gasped heavily. The first person I saw was another mandalorian. Their helmet was a dark blue unlike Din's.

"Celeste!" I heard Din's voice call from above.

Another mandalorian lent over the side. Their helmet was also dark blue. They reached their hand down towards me and I quickly took hold off it. Once I had tightly grasped the Mandalorian's hand, the other one dived back into the water.

The mandalorian began to pull me out of the water. I grabbed onto the side and helped him pull me out. Once my body was fully out of the water, I collapsed onto the ground and gasped heavily. Coughing and spluttering from the small amount of water that had entered my lungs.

A familiar helmet appeared in my vision. His hands shook as he held onto my arms and slowly helped me sit up.

"Are you okay?" He asked warily, his voice sounded rough.

I nodded to him and placed my shaking hand on his pauldron. "Are you?"

"I am." I said gently. My voice sounded just as rough as his, if not worse.

Din sighed shakily and moved his gloved hand to rest on the side of my face. I closed my eyes and lent slightly into his open palm. Din gently put pressure on the side of my head and pulled me towards him. He rested his forehead against mine for a moment before he lent back.

Din slowly began to stand up, he kept a tight grasp on my arms to help me stand along with him. "Come on." He said quietly.

The two of us walked across the deck and took a seat on a crate. I was still taking in deep breaths of air and my head felt slightly dizzy. I could hear faint blaster shots and screeching coming from the water.

"Din, where's the kid?" I asked, worry was thick in my voice.

Just as I said it. The screeching stopped and  the mandalorian who rescued me burst out of the water with the child's pram in her arms. She landed on the ground and my heart dropped even further. The child's pram was crushed and dented.

The mandalorian placed the pod on the ground and Din quickly lent over. I shuffled on the crate so I could see over his shoulder as the mandalorian pried open the doors. She gently picked up the child.

"Here you go little one." The woman said as she gently paced the child over into d
Din's waiting arms.

Din pulled the child into his arms and I reached my hand out to place my hand on the child's small shoulder. I looked over him and felt relief rush through me at the sight that he was okay.

"Thank you. I've been searching for more of our kind." Din said

"Well, lucky we found you first." The woman with the white and blue helmet said.

"I've been quested to deliver this child. I was hoping that..." Din trailed off as the three mandalorians removed their helmet. Will we ever find the people Din is looking for?

Din carefully stood up from the crate. I could tell that he was still weak from almost drowning.

"Where did you get that armor?" He asked intimidatingly

"This armor has been in my family for three generations." The woman with the short red hair said.

"You do not cover your face. You are not Mandalorian." Din stated

"He's one of them." The man spat. I furrowed my brows at his words.

"Dank Farrick." The woman that saved me said

"One of what?" Din asked in confusion.

"I am Bo-Katan of Clan Kryze. I was born on Mandalore and fought in the purge. I am the last of my line. And you are a child of the watch." Bo-Katan said. I tilted my head slightly in confusion. She was a mandalorian but she could remove her helmet.

"The watch?" Din asked in confusion

"Children of the watch are a cult of religious zealots that broke away from mandalorian society. Their goal was to re-establish the ancient way." Bo-Katan explained

"There is only one way. The way of the Mandalore." Din argued

Din then turned around and held his hand out to me. I looked up at him as I gently took hold of his hand and allowed him to pull me up.

He then tightly wrapped his arms around my waist. My arms automatically found their place around his neck as he turned on his jetpack. I held on tightly as my feet left the ground and we flew away from the Mandalorian's.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was slowly beginning to set over the horizon and the fog that had previously plagued the sky had lifted. This caused the sky to be painted in a beautiful shade of orange and yellow.

Just in front of the sunset was the ship that we had managed to escape from with our lives. My hair was still slightly damp from being forced into the freezing depths of the water and my clothes still clung to my body.

From the ship came three small figures that left a trail of smoke behind them. Once they had exited the ship and flown up towards the sky, the fishing boat explained into a bright orange that almost matched the sky.

The noise could be heard from where Din and I stood. He turned around and walked off. I sighed gently before I followed after him. What I really needed right now was a change of clothes. Then we could worry about our next steps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and gently ran my hand across my head. When the man had shoved me under the water with a pole he had cut my head open. It wasn't too deep, but it hurt a lot.

Regardless of my exhaustion and the stinging in the side of my head, I was slowly starting to feel better. I had gotten changed into clean clothes and had a shower, the smell of the water from the mamacore pool really wasn't pleasant.

I felt slightly warmer, but I could still feel an insistent chill deep in my bones. I fought back a shiver and pulled my hands into the sleeves of my long sleeved shirt.

I turned to the slightly worn door of the bathroom and opened it. The first thing my eyes fell on was the child sitting on one of the bed's of the inn. His ears perked up when I opened the door which caused me to smile involuntarily.

I padded across the wooden floor and grabbed my backpack that was resting on the ground. I opened it up and pulled out a blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders tightly.

The child cooed gently from the bed beside me, he was looking up at me with wide eyes.

"Hey. Are you okay?" I asked him gently. I sat down on the bed and pulled him into my lap. The child made a noise of contentment and snuggled closer to me. I smiled gently again at his actions and wrapped the blanket around him as well.

The front door of the room softly clicked open. I looked across the room and saw Din reentering the room. He had his brown satchel bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hey." I said gently

"Hey, I brought food." He said as he tapped the satchel with his index finger.

"Great. I'm so hungry." I said, I could feel my appetite grow at the thought of food.

"Still cold?" Din mused as he took the bag off his shoulder and placed it on his bed.

"Freezing." I said with humor in my voice.

Instead of laughing at my joke, Din sighed and looked away from me. I furrowed my brows in confusion and stood up from my bed.

I walked on quiet feet across the room and placed the child on Din's bed. Now that my arms were free, I crossed them over my chest and stood in front of him, though his visor wouldn't meet my gaze.

"What's going on?" I asked gently

He hesitated before he let out a deep sigh. "This is my fault."

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What is?"

"All of this. First we crashed on that planet and now you almost drowned." Din said. I could hear annoyance in his tone. But not towards me, towards himself.

"None of that was your fault." I stated

"It was. I took Peli's word for it and we didn't even find who we were looking for. And I..." he cut himself off abruptly

"What?" I prompted gently

"It doesn't matter." He shook his head and turned away from me. Without thinking, I reached my hand out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

"Din, What is it?" I prompted again

Din sighed and looked down at the floor. His fingers twitched as he hesitated to say what he wanted to. I slowly moved my hand down his wrist and took a hold of his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. Especially if it was my fault." Din muttered

"You won't lose me. I promise. Even if...even if something like that had happened, it wouldn't be your fault." I argued

Din sighed again and took a step forward. We stood so close that our chests brushed together. His hand was still in mine and I felt him tighten his grip. His head lent forward towards me and landed gently against my forehead again. It felt incredibly intimate. We stood there together for a while, in each other's embrace. And it felt like home.