Episode 10 (Part 2) - "The Passenger"

Word Count: 5900 exactly bb

Warnings: creepy ew yucky gucky spiders, explosions, action, swearing, a little bit of fluff if you squint, etc.

Din groaned as he woke up with his neck at an awkward angle, his head throbbing slightly and a slight chill running down his back from the cold. Sitting up quickly Din raised his hands to try the controls and get the ship running, but paused when he heard the groan of the woman behind him.

He swivelled around in his chair and looked down at the ground to see the woman laying there, shivering violently and groaning as she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to keep herself as warm as possible. Instantly Din ran forward and helped her into her seat, nodding as she protested in her language and pushed against his shoulders.

"I'll find your eggs, don't worry," Din reassured her, nodding again when she whimpered slightly and stopped fighting him to sit down. "Gotta get you some blankets, keep you warm."

Turning out of the cockpit Din slid down the ladder and looked around the deck, only to notice that there was an enormous hole on one side of the ship that let the snow of the planet float in and freeze any of the boxes that were even remotely close to it, while broken wires hung loose and sparked dangerously.

"Dammit."

The breeze sent another unpleasant chill down his spine as he turned to his sleeping compartment, then felt his heart drop when he noticed it was empty. "Y/N?!"

The woman started calling for him from the cockpit and he quickly looked up. "Hang on, I'm looking for your eggs!" he called back, then scrambled through the piles of boxes and cargo containers in search of you and the baby.

Din quickly pulled back a large sheet near the ramp and cursed again, quickly throwing it away and bending down to brush your hair out of your face. You were laying on your stomach and he could feel you trembling even through his gloves, making him instantly pull the sheet back over your body and turn you over so he could completely wrap you in it.

There wasn't any blood anywhere, which was a good sign, and he quickly checked your body for any more injuries. Nothing.

Just as he was about to stand back up, Din heard the sound of someone slurping, and he rested you in his lap, then pulled back a jacket to see the Child grab another egg from the tank and coo over at him.

"No!" he said sternly, shutting the lid of the tank and pushing the baby away. "I told you not to do that."

The woman continued to speak to him from the cockpit. "Found them!" Din called up to her, then narrowed his eyes as he studied the glass container that held a significantly less amount of eggs than it did before.

"How many did you eat?" he hissed, receiving only a burp from the Child that made Din grumble under his breath and lift you up to get you away from the gaping hole.

He set you down against the wall and cradled your head in his hands, frowning with worry and reaching his hand down to shake your shoulder. "Y/N?"

You groaned softly.

"You gotta wake up, or you're gonna get sick."

When you groaned again he sighed and stood up, handing the crate of eggs to the woman before he quickly climbed up the ladder and walked into your room, grabbing the jackets and blankets you had and jumping back down. He handed the woman the thicker blanket, then lifted you up to wrap you in your larger coat and set the Child down in your lap so you could try keeping him warm, too.

Din moved onto the hole and tied a large tarp over it to at least stop the wind and snow from getting inside the ship, then moved onto the food and water supply. Grabbing a pouch of what was now ice he walked over to one of the heaters and kicked it to get it to turn on, then set a couple bowls on top of it and poured the water in to them. Din dragged the other smaller heaters over to where the woman and you were sitting to help keep you three warm and sighed in frustration at the stupid situation.

He then moved on to inspect the ship, both the inside and the out, leading his frown to only deepen the further and further he got. When he got back inside he noticed that the water actually had a little steam to it, and he let out a quick sigh of relief before handing one of the bowls and a container of food to the woman before he sat down on the floor next to you.

He raised the bowl up to you. "Drink."

"Give it to the woman," you muttered, and he sighed.

"She already has some."

"Then give it to the baby."

"He's not at risk of getting hypothermia like you are."

"Din-"

"Drink it, Y/N."

He watched as you hesitantly opened your eyes and lifted your hands up to wrap them around the bowl, then slowly raise it to your lips and carefully drink the steaming hot water. Din glanced up at the woman.

"If you hadn't guessed, we're in a tight spot," he sighed as she used her tongue to snatch a piece of food. "The main power drive is not responding, and the hull has lost its integrity. I suspect the temperature will drop significantly when night falls. I'll have a better idea of our prospects at that time."

The woman then began speaking to him and pointed to the crate that held her eggs. Din frowned.

"I'm sorry, lady. I don't understand Frog. Whatever it is, it can wait until morning. I recommend you get some sleep."

You placed the empty bowl on the ground and Din let out another internal sigh of relief, then looked down at his hand in contemplation. He worked up a small amount of courage and slowly raised it around your shoulders, though all of his nerves diminished when you instantly melted into his embrace and rested your head on his shoulder.

"Your armour's really lumpy." You frowned, shifting your head to try cuddling closer, and then you giggled. "That's why I called you that. I miss calling you that."

He sighed. "It was an awful name."

You giggled again. "I know. That was the point."

The baby cuddled up to his other side and cooed softly, nuzzling his head into his pant fabric while pulling a blanket over his body. Din smiled softly and let his other hand cradle the Child to keep him steady.

"I mean... sure it was bad and everything, but... it was creative, wasn't it? And it was supposed to be bad! But it made sense!"

Din rolled his eyes.

"And I liked it because it was something different from what everyone else says! What was I gonna call you, Mando like everyone else?! Fuck no! That's ugly! That's like if you fucking called me Human instead of my name! And I knew you weren't going to tell me your name, so... Lumpy!"

Then he sighed.

"I'm not basic, and I wasn't just going to call you what everyone else did! That's confusing! And it doesn't add that extra something that's personal! Reserved for just the two of us! Not to mention, what if we were in a room full of Mandalorians and I was trying to call you! I'd fucking call Mando and I'd have thirty goddamn heads turn to face me 'cause they thought I needed them!"

Then he closed his eyes.

"It could have been so much worse! Like... like Buttercup. Or Sugarlips... or, or Poopsie!"

Din opened his eyes and scrunched his face as he stared down at you.

"Although..."

Your eyes were hooded again as your rant seemed to drain all of your energy, and he rolled his eyes before rubbing your arm softly and pulling you a little closer as he rested his head back against the wall.

"As much as I'm gonna miss Lumpy... I like your name, too."

"You can call me whatever you want, Y/N."

When Din didn't get a response, he looked down to see that you had fallen asleep again, and he frowned, then decided to let you rest, just for a little while. It was much better now that you had layers on, and you were positioned right next to the heat. There was no doubt that you were still a little disoriented, so he hoped that maybe a little rest would be good. There wasn't much else he could do.

It wasn't even a few minutes later that he felt his eyes slip shut as well, and after a final rub up and down your arm, he drifted off back into a deep, quiet sleep.

---

"Wake up, Mandalorian!"

Din jolted awake and lowered his hand to quickly pull out his blaster and aim it at the sound of the robotic voice, his heart racing and his eyes still slightly out of focus while you and the baby jumped out of fright and looked around wildly.

"This cannot wait until morning."

His eyes followed the voice to the head of the droid that you had shot down back during the prison escape, and his eyes trailed along the wire connected to it to see that the woman was speaking into it.

"Do not be alarmed. I bypassed the droid's security protocols and accessed its vocabulator."

"What the hell are you doing?" he sighed, shoving his blaster back in it's holster and glancing over at you worriedly for a second. "That droid is a killer."

The woman ignored what he was saying and pointed to her canister. "These eggs are the last brood of my life cycle. My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet that is hospitable to our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line. I must demand that you hold true to the deal that you agreed to."

"Look," he sighed. "Lady, the deal is off. We're lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives."

"I thought honoring one's word was a part of the Mandalorian code," she retorted. "I guess those are just stories for children."

The baby cooed and looked up at him, and Din turned to face you as you sighed and slowly made to stand up.

"This was not a part of the deal," he grumbled, angrily grabbing the tool box and walking outside with you hot on his heels. Quickly he raised an eyebrow and stopped you in your tracks. "What are you doing?"

"Oh please," you scoffed. "It'll take twice as long to get stuff done if I sit there and do nothing."

"If you come outside then you're gonna get sick."

"Then we better pick up the pace," you nodded, pulling your goggles down over your eyes and your large fur hoodie over your head before stepping around him and out into the frozen tundra. Clicking his tongue in slight annoyance Din followed you out, avoiding the sparking wire and stepping out to get a good look at the completely fallen apart ship.

The wind was howling in his ears as he followed you over towards the cockpit, and he frowned in disgust, watching as a blue liquid squirted out of one of the main blaster cannons of the ship, then looked around at the icy cave the Crest had fallen into.

When Din had said he wanted to go someplace a little cooler, this was not what he meant. At all.

"We should start with the power drive," you spoke aloud, and Din glanced up to see you step over a large chunk of ice to make your way to the other side of the ship. "No point in getting anything else to work if we can't even get the damn ship to turn on."

He followed you in silence and didn't object, knowing that even if he considered himself to be pretty handy with these things, this was your field of expertise, and it would do nobody any good if he argued. Din helped you step up onto the top of the ship and handed you a torch before following your instructions and beginning with a rather large section that had been ripped up.

It was about another half an hour later when he was using one of the electric welding guns that he heard the baby begin jabbering, and Din paused, glancing over to see the baby standing in the snow and pointing to something. He sighed.

"How 'bout you come over here, give us a hand?" he mused, gesturing with his head for the baby to come closer. "Make yourself useful."

Din turned back to the damage of the ship to continue what he was doing, but paused when he noticed in his peripherals that the Child had started moving away. "Hey, kid," he called, furrowing his eyebrows and frowning when the kid didn't turn around. "I said hey! Where are you going?"

That was when you poked your head out of the hole you were working on and you lifted your goggles up on top of your head. "What's wrong?" you asked, swinging your legs around to slide off while Din stood up and made to follow the baby.

"I don't know," he muttered, then tried calling out again. "Come back here!"

When you both walked around the front of the ship you noticed that the baby was standing still and staring at a large tunnel, making the both of you step up behind him and kneel down to the ground. Din heard you mutter a tiny "oh no" under your breath, and he frowned, looking at the set of fresh footsteps in the snow.

"When did she go?" he sighed rhetorically, using the heat sensors in his helmet to find that the footsteps were still quite fresh and led into the dark tunnel into the large unknown of the ice. The baby responded in his little gibberish and Din gulped, looking up at you as the wind lightly blew your hair back out of your face.

You frowned and looked down at him, and he sighed again, reaching down to pick up the baby before walking stepping forward to follow the footsteps.

You stayed beside him with your small frown adorning your lips and your coat close to your body, and his eyes locked up ahead at the endless cavern. The snow covered the ground and made the tips of Din's toes start to feel a little numb, and he looked back to see you shiver and look up at the tealish hue of the ice that completely surrounded the path that he was following.

Din made a left turn and looked up at the ceiling, his insides beginning to tremble from the cold and the sound of your breathing, the baby cooing and the crunching of the snow beneath his feet being the only things he could hear. He raised his foot over a large piece of ice and squeezed between two more, then turned around to reach his hand out and help you do the same.

Once you sent him a smile with your teeth chattering he sighed and turned back around to continue slowly in the direction of the footsteps. It was after about another ten long, dreadful minutes of walking that he turned on the heat sensors in his helmet and noticed there was a large amount of heat just up ahead that the footsteps led straight towards.

"Come on," he muttered, picking up the pace with a small amount of hope filling his chest. Din turned right around the corner with you by his side, and the both of you let out a sigh of relief as you noticed the woman was sitting in a large tub of steaming hot water.

"Oh thank god," you sighed as you rushed forward.

Din stepped in and let his eyes trail over the large cave the natural tub was in, swallowing thickly when he noticed large icicles hanging from the ceiling and that the cave went on for quite some time.

"You can't leave the ship," he chided, coming up to kneel next to you beside the tub and put the baby down. "It's not safe out here."

"Let's gather these up." You smiled softly, reaching your hand into the warm water to start collecting them as the woman began protesting.

"I know it's warm," Din sighed, reaching his hands in to do the same. "But night's coming fast, and I can't protect you out here."

The woman groaned sadly and you both continued to gently plop the eggs into the tank, though Din's eyes looked down to see the baby coo and reach his hand out to try grabbing one of the eggs.

"No," Din said sternly, putting his hand out and sticking his index finger up to wiggle it. "No!"

The baby whined and you glanced up at him. "Why can't he look at the eggs?"

"Later," he muttered, and you frowned, then continued to help him with the eggs. The woman pushed all of the ones that were out of reach with the both of you continued to pick them up and put them into the tank.

You sniffled lightly beside Din from the cold and he plopped a few more eggs into the water of the tank, his fingers getting a little cold every time his hand left the hot water and his vision getting a little fogged up from the steam. You pointed one out that was closer to him but too far for you to reach, and he quickly grabbed it, put it in the tank, then looked down to see that there weren't any more in the water.

Din then reached up to seal the lid onto the tank and helped you stand up, and the both of you turned around at the sound of the baby cooing what sounded like in the distance. Din furrowed his eyebrows as the baby whimpered loudly and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him through the snow all the way up to your feet, and he cried out while reaching his arms up.

"What's wrong?" you cooed, picking him up softly and hugging him to your chest while Din picked up the strap of the tank and threw it over his shoulder. That was when he heard a rumbling sound and looked around the cave again, this time only just noticing that there had to be hundreds of little rocks placed all around the snow. Though, when he looked closer, he noticed that the rocks were... moving.

"Din," you muttered softly, noticing the same thing he had while you tucked the baby under your coat and closer to your body. Din stepped forward carefully and let his eyes trail over the shaking rocks to see a tiny spider begin to break it's way out of each one, then start to crawl their way quickly on their tiny legs.

Din's eyes grazed over what had to be hundreds of spiders that were pattering their way over, and the sound of the woman using her tongue to quickly grab her clothes could be heard before she quickly stepped out and changed.

There was then a deep growl that made Din look up into the darkest part of the cave, and he noticed that the spiders were only getting bigger as more and more of them crawled their way towards the group. His heart sank when he watched as an enormous spider that had to be at least a hundred times larger than the rest (and no doubt the mother of all of these babies) stepped out and screeched lowly, keeping her eyes locked on the group as her target.

"Din!"

"Go, go, go!" he called, waving his hand quickly to motion back the way everyone came. "Back to the ship!"

The woman instantly turned around and bolted in the other direction while you laced your fingers through his and followed her, the both of you running as fast as you possibly could as the mother roared and started chasing you. Using his free hand Din pulled out his blaster and led you through the maze of ice, using his heat vision to help him find the way as you and the woman stayed as close to him as you could.

He made a sharp right turn and sprinted down a long, icy hallway, then paused as he noticed that a bunch of the babies were climbing the walls up in front of him. You bumped into Din's back as he started shooting down as many as he could, and he turned around quickly to see the mother spider was approaching.

Din's eyes widened and he pulled you out of the way when he saw the spider shoot some of her webs from her mouth toward you, and he tugged on your arm roughly while setting his blaster back in it's holster. The woman had moved on from running to leaping like a frog, which had evidently worked much better for her since she was going much faster and he pulled you around another tight corner, the sounds of the spider thumping over top of his head and letting him know that she was on top of the layer of ice.

You bumped into his back again and screamed