CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

THE CHASE

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T/W: mentions of blood and gore 

The bliss didn't last for long.

The night air tasted of bile and blood as the firefight broke out along the streets of Mos Eisley. In the dead of night, where no creatures should have been stirring, the world erupted into chaos.

Tess scrambled along with her parents, trying to pull them back, tears staining her little cheeks. She knew what was about to happen. She'd lived this nightmare before. Again and again and again. Every single time it drove her to the point of hysteria, where all she wanted to do was rip out her own heart. She never could. She could never do anything.

The attack had come out of nowhere.

The ship had arrived in the bay. The white clad warriors had filed out in a single line, their black, glistening blasters held dutifully by their side. The man dressed all in black had called the order to begin the raid. Tess was frightened. She was so very scared as her parents knelt before her behind a crumbling building. She didn't care that they were holding her hands, telling her it would be all right, embracing her for the very last time. She'd relived this moment more than she could count. Her parents' words had lost all meaning. They weren't going to be alright. They were never alright. They'd decided to fight for a cause and it had gotten them killed. Tess would not make the same mistake.

Dead bodies littered the ground like dead flies, blood seeping from wounds that cut deep. There were no more smiles, no more screams of joy, only shrieks of terror.

Tess had lost her voice. She pulled at her parents, kicking and punching them, trying to get them to stay back. All they did was give her hugs and kisses on her forehead and told her they loved her. Tess tried to yell at them, silent screams bursting from her lips. The building beside them exploded. Her parents then left her, telling her to run. She couldn't. She couldn't move. Her legs were stuck in place by some unseen force. She reached out her arms, back straining, but her parents paid her no mind. They were lost in each other's eyes.

Blaster fire stung Tess' ears as she clumsily fell to the ground, her feet were cement bricks that kept her in place. The streets were laden with rubble and blood, staining her hands with mud and rust.

She scrambled onto her knees, crying out as she seemed to watch the figures ahead of her move in slow motion. Her mother went first, spinning her dual pistols with her nimble fingers. She turned to her husband and pushed her face forward. Their lips connected, and in that moment, both their eyes, tearing and strained, said the exact same words they always did in these nightmares.

Goodbye.

Tess' screams did nothing to stop her parents rounding the corner of the buildings, firing at will against the stormtroopers wreaking havoc on their town. She could hear every grunt of pain, every blast that came from the pistols of her mother, every heavy crack of her father's own gun. She watched, knees growing moist from all the blood, as she heard the two gunshots she'd come to realize were the end. They rung out like bells signalling the end of a day's work, or the ring of a school day coming to a close. It always sounded like the end, no matter if it was different each time. The noise always meant the same thing.

Her parents were dead.

The next moments happened as if cut and pasted together with wet glue. Everything seemed to be tinted in white, in a haze of ivory which dulled her senses, yet heightened her awareness. Tess' legs were able to move again. She ran, bounding across the road, turning around the corner with no sense of danger.

She ran through the pain in her knees. She ran through the knowledge of her parents' demise. She ran towards hope, wishing against all odds that she would round the corner and see that her wishes had been granted, that her parents were well and alive in the center of the square.

But fate had other plans. It always did.

"Tess."

Lying several feet away from her, surrounded by at least a dozen decaying troopers, her parents rested on the ground. They weren't holding hands. Tess knew they were dead, because her parents always fell asleep holding hands.

"Tess."

The world seemed to slow. Tess was all stunned expressions and uncontrollable limbs. A piercing scream erupted from her body as she ran into the firefight. It was a scream that shook the rooftops of Mos Eisley. It caused the stars to tremble and the night air to freeze. It was a scream of pure, glowing pain. She couldn't control what happened next, no matter how hard she tried.

"Tess."

Tess never reached her parent's bodies.

A searing pain numbed the back of her leg, heat and fire digging into her flesh. Tess cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Tears pricked her cheeks like gemstones, and when she reached down to touch the angry red blemish on her leg, she felt nothing. Tess gasped, all senses of the world around her vanishing into oblivion.

She couldn't feel her leg.

The nightmare would not stop. Tess lay on the ground, the pain like a firestorm gripping her leg. She'd thought that by now she'd be used to it, feeling the pain over and over again nearly every night. She didn't. It hurt just the same every time. The pain that made her want to tear her hair out and rip her body apart to find it and make it stop. She never could. In these nightmares, no matter how hard she thought she could battle them, thought that she might be able to change her parent's fates, Tess never won. The demons always haunted her, always claimed victory as Tess struggled to move her aching body off the ground.

She couldn't move. Her leg seethed. Her bones seemed to crumble under her flesh, and blood speckled her mouth as she looked at her parents' dead bodies. Then, suddenly, her mother's cold and lifeless head turned to face Tess. She jolted back as the glazed eyes met hers. They looked like clouds on a rainy day, like the film over boiling eggs. They frightened Tess.

Her dead mother reached out a crooked, purple and black hand towards Tess.

"When the dawn breaks," Tess frowned as her mother's words washed over her like a cool wind that pricked at her skin. "It is a new day to fight."

Then her mother and father exploded.

Their daughter screamed.

"Tess!"

The girl jolted upright, palms shaking, sweat dripping down her brow, a scream bursting from her lips. She heaved in weighted breaths of condensed air, forcing her lungs to open up when they felt like they were about to collapse. The image of her parents, pale and as cold as the death which took them, exploding into a frenzy of blood and sinew, the gore splashing her face like a warm and sticky blanket. Her hands immediately went up to her cheeks, wiping away the blood, but her fingers came back dry. No blood covered her hands, no guts or organs lining her palms. She was clean.

It had all been a dream.

"Tess?" It was then that she felt the hands on her shoulders, large arms pushing her down from where she'd been thrashing on the small cot. Tess closed her eyes for a moment, willing away the tears, then sat further up to face the Mandalorian. Under his helmet, sweat glistened upon his forehead as he looked at the young girl. His eyes were panic-stricken, and her quiet whimpers still haunted his mind.

When he'd awoken to the sound of something tossing and turning behind the door to the bed, the Mandalorian had immediately known something was wrong. Then came the noise. That terrible whimper, the subdued screams of a child in pain. He'd rushed to the cot and slammed his hand down on the button, and the sight that awaited him behind the door made his blood run cold. Tess, head and body thrashing uncontrollably as her hands shook, tears falling down her usually dry cheeks. Her eyes were closed, but the Mandalorian had a good idea of what lay beneath the lids; a storm. However, it wasn't the tears or the shrieks which made the Mandalorian try to wake her up.

It was the fact that she was floating, and every object around her was flying in the air.

The child had cooed at him as his little bag started to fly off it's hooks. The little med pack and spare pillow moved through the air as if suspended by strings. Tess' body was lifted off the ground until she was hovering several inches above the fabric. The Mandalorian had seen that power before, not only in her, but in the child, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that using it while in pain brought nothing good.

Tess breathed heavily as she looked around the space, and frowned when she saw several objects that should have been firmly on the ground coming to rest softly upon the metal, as if they had just been floating in the air. Tess looked back to where the Mandalorian stood in the doorway of the cot, his shoulders heaving as he looked her over for injuries. She wiped a still shaky hand over her forehead, trying to get rid of the sweat there.

"What happened?" She finally managed to rasp out. The Mandalorian winced at her tone. It felt as if every syllable were cutting through his protective armor, piercing his skin with a thousand tiny needles. For some reason, her words hurt more than usual. They seemed to hold extra power as he backed away, and she scooted closer to the edge of the cot so that her feet came to rest on the floor. She hunched her shoulders and peered down, not wanting to look at the warrior still watching her.

"You..." the Mandalorian tried to say. "I think you had a nightmare." Tess cursed under her breath, blowing out a heavy sigh as she bit the inside of her cheek. The Mandalorian didn't know what to do. He knew he should probably leave her alone, that she would want to be left to her thoughts, not have someone doting on her. But the Mandalorian couldn't bring himself to turn away. He wanted to help her, soothe her pain. Make sure that she would be all right. Something told him that this wasn't the first time she'd had a nightmare, and even if she didn't know it, it wasn't the first time she'd accidentally used her powers either.

Tess didn't know what to do. She knew the Mandalorian wanted to say something else. She knew he wanted to comfort her, tell her it was going to be alright, but Tess knew better. It was never alright. Never. Every time a variation of the dream came to her, Tess thought she could battle it. She thought she would be able to go to sleep for one night and have no dreams. She just wanted to be able to close her eyes and see nothing but darkness.

Please, she asked some unforeseen God or Goddess in the stars, just let me rest. Nobody answered.

Tess sighed and forced her eyes upwards. "I'm fine." she said solemnly, hoping that her words, as sharp as daggers, would keep the Mandalorian's intrigue at bay. Tess looked back down to her feet, suddenly becoming very interested in her boots. The Mandalorian frowned, then turned away. Tess let out a breath.

For a moment, all was silent.

Then, the girl jolted in surprise as something heavy and fluffy hit her square in the face. Tess gasped as the blanket squashed her nose and fell into her lap. She immediately looked up to see the Mandalorian on the other side of the ship, his hand lowering to his side. Tess narrowed her eyes at him.
"What was that for?" she asked coolly. The Mandalorian smiled under his helmet. He walked forward, gesturing to the blanket.

"In case you were cold." he said honestly. Tess' frown deepened as she looked down at the blanket. Only then did she see the goosebumps rising upon her skin, and the shiver in her shoulders. It felt as if a cool breeze was rising up in her body, and Tess realized that she wasn't just cold, she was freezing. Her hands went instinctively up to the side of her forearms, rubbing some life back into them. The cold seeped through the fabric of her jacket, and the sweat that still stuck to her neck were frozen droplets.

Having lived on a hot and dry desert planet her entire life, Tess wasn't used to the temperatures of space. It had been one of the concerns the Mandalorian had had when Tess decided to go with him. While he was accustomed to the differing climates of each system from all his travels, Tess had only ever known the heat of Tatooine, the blisters of the two suns, and the only cold she'd ever felt was in the dark of night in the middle of the winter seasons, but even then, it was still warmer than most planets.

Tess made an O shape with her mouth and tentatively placed the blanket around her shoulders, pulling it tight across her shivering body. She didn't say thank you, but the Mandalorian could see the gratitude in her eyes. He was fine with it. The Mandalorian had already gained one thanks from Tess Oprin, and he found that it was enough. The warmth immediately seeped into her skin, heat building up from the woolen blanket into her body. The goosebumps died down. Slowly. One by one. Tess breathed deeply, while the Mandalorian watched her, a small smile on his face.

"I didn't know I was cold." Tess finally spoke up. The Mandalorian raised an eyebrow at her words. Tess still didn't look at him, only stared down at her shoes, rubbing her hands together.

"Space does that." the Mandalorian replied. Tess snorted, then her eyes widened. It wasn't exactly a laugh, but it was the closest thing to it, and Tess frowned. The Mandalorian didn't. He could see her warring with herself, just as he'd seen many days ago when the Marshal had carried her into the bar in Mos Pelgo. Tess always seemed to want to stay stoic, yet when she let the facade crack, the Mandalorian had never seen a brighter self.

He wanted her to smile. She did not.

Suddenly, Tess was thrown forward as a loud beeping overtook the belly of the ship. She landed hard on her knees and the Mandalorian ran to help her up. She struggled to right herself as the loud alarms blared a violent red across her skull, hitting her brain. Her still groggy head seemed to clear, and she looked up at the ladder leading to the cockpit, where the beeping grew even louder.

"What is that?" Tess gritted out as the Mandalorian let go of her and went to climb up the ladder. He didn't reply, and soon disappeared into the cockpit. Tess mumbled under her breath, pulled the blanket tighter around her, and struggled up the rungs of the ladder. When she made it to the cockpit, Tess saw Frog Lady still asleep in her chair, and the Mandalorian just sitting down, hitting the buttons to the controls. Tess walked steadily over and peered over his shoulder.

The Mandalorian didn't acknowledge Tess, but he knew she was there, hand placed firmly on the back of his seat, head moving forward to look at the many buttons and levers and screens which made up the front of the ship. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dim light as Tess watched the Mandalorian maneuver the craft with ease.

"Someone's trying to talk to us." the Mandalorian told her. Tess furrowed her brow.

"Who?" she asked.

"The New Republic." he replied dimly. Tess' blood froze in her veins. The New Republic, an order brought from the ashes of a war they started, a fragile system, still newborn, with holes in it's politics and glaring problems surrounding them. They were once rebels, like her parents, sending out messages to help destroy the Empire that governed with an iron fist. Eventually, their war efforts paid off, but at a steep price.

Her parents were one of them. Tess held no sympathy for the New Republic, nor the Empire.

"Razor Crest, M-One-Eleven." A voice called in one of the comms. Tess and Mando shared a silent look. "Come in, Razor Crest. Do you copy?" The voice was a man, probably a little older than Mando, and it was fuzzy with static. A whirring noise pulled Tess' attention out into the space, and she gasped, patting the Mandalorian on an armored shoulder. He turned to see two New Republic X-Wings closing in on either side.

"Can they see in here?" Tess asked, not wanting the New Republic to question the Mandalorian on what a little girl was doing with a former bounty hunter.

"I don't think so." Replied Mando, thinking the exact same thing. Tess' stance eased and she looked over his chair again. The Mandalorian then turned to speak with the rangers. "This is Razor Crest. Is there a problem?" Tess kept her gaze firmly on the ships on either side of them. The pilot of one suddenly felt as if a strike of lightning was trying to burrow through his helmet. He shook his body firmly, trying to get rid of it, and focused on the task at hand.

Back inside the ship, Tess could hardly breathe.

"We noticed your transponder is not emitting." Tess' eyes widened. If Mando didn't have a transponder, it meant that the New Republic had no idea who was flying the ship, who the maker was, or whether or not they needed to arrest those on board. This is bad, Tess thought glumly.

"Yes, I'm pre-Empire surplus." the Mandalorian answered calmly. "I'm not required to run a beacon." Tess bit the inside of her cheek, turning to where the Mandalorian was shifting controls, his shoulders stiffening, head tilting slightly to the side.

"Mando," she whispered. "This is bad."

"It's okay Tess." The Mandalorian replied. His comment did nothing to ease the churning of her stomach. Her hands, now shaking slightly, moved the blanket tighter around her shoulders, the wool pushing up against the back of her neck. A shiver ran down her spine as she looked back out towards the two X-Wings, eyes narrowing.

"That was before." The ranger told them through the comms. Tess forced herself to stay silent, when all she wanted to do was yell at the two men. "This sector is under New Republic jurisdiction." the Mandalorian held up a hand to stop Tess from doing whatever it was she was thinking. "All craft are required to run a beacon." The Mandalorian tried not to show the hint of panic worming its way through his heart. He could feel Tess watching him, feel her eyes which only minutes before had watched him, amused, as he threw the blanket in her face, now staring lifelessly towards the two ships closing in on them. The Mandalorian didn't think that the New Republic would do anything to actively destroy his ship, as well as anyone else on it, but he remembered when he'd placed the beacon onto Xi'an's brother a couple weeks back. The fighters hadn't even hesitated in demolishing the hangar bay.

"Thank you for letting me know." the Mandalorian finally choked out. "I'll get right on it." Tess looked hesitant at the Mandalorian, eyebrows shooting up. The Mandalorian simply shrugged and turned back to the matter at hand; getting them out there unharmed. It wasn't looking good, Tess knew, but she couldn't seem to move. Her hand was placed firmly on the back of the Mandalorian's chair, other hand gripping the blanket slung across her pointed shoulders. Her insides seemed frozen, not so much from fear, but from exhilaration. Her nightmare still swam at the edge of her mind, and the ache in her fingertips did not cease. It felt as if her skin was splitting down the middle.

After a moment, hope flared in her chest. "Not a problem." one of the rangers told them. "Safe travels." Tess let out a relieved sigh, her hand moving back down to her side. The Mandalorian's shoulders relaxed. The sweat that stuck to Tess' face itched, like a feather was tickling the back of her neck. She swatted it away, her hands calm and steady, a complete shift to the clammy and sweat slicked flesh they had been before. She'd pulled down another mask, another facade where nothing could break through. Her thoughts were clouded over, her eyes like a storm.

"May the Force be with you." The Mandalorian said after a moment. Tess raised a quizzical brow at him, and again, the Mandalorian shrugged. The phrase was something he'd heard spoken over and over again by the New Republic, not that he had a clue what it truly meant. He didn't know what the force was, and neither did Tess, but they both understood it might keep them in the Republic's good graces.

"And also with you." the ranger replied. Tess relaxed and moved over so that she was standing next to the Mandalorian, looking out at the stars and the ships still flying beside them. The Mandalorian glanced over at her, messy curls scrunched up from sleeping on them for so long, eyes wandering the many galaxies as if she could see every single speck on each planet. Gloved hands holding a fuzzy blanket around her shoulders and her metal leg bouncing up and down nervously, never had Tess Oprin looked more like the child she was. At some point, the Mandalorian realized he'd somehow forgotten that she was only fifteen. A child. A little girl in a large galaxy. She carried wisdom on her back like a boulder.

The Mandalorian had forgotten how young she was, because Tess was a girl who'd known too much tragedy. She was the girl who wore tragedy like a second skin. And the people who are friends with it, always seemed to be a little older, and a little wiser in life.

Tess shouldn't have been the girl to wear misfortune like a crown atop her head of fading curls.

"Just one more thing." the ranger's voice rang out again, and Tess gave a frustrated groan. The Mandalorian shushed her, and she fell silent immediately.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I'm gonna need you to send us a ping." Tess' eyes narrowed at the words. Despite being an excellent mechanic, Tess wasn't that well familiar with the inner workings of ships, mostly because they had none out in the sands of Mos Pelgo. No one ever traveled by ship across those plains, as superstition had driven them all back. The only visitor they'd gotten recently was the Mandalorian, and while Tess was familiar with the plans for a ship like his, that was about all she knew. Tess made a mental note to ask the Mandalorian about it when all of this was over.

Unless this would be the last time she could speak with him.

"We're out here sweeping for Imperial holdouts." the man continued.

"I'll let you know if I see any." the Mandalorian replied. His shoulders were stiff again, hands tightening around the controls of the ship. Tess was frozen in place, her eyes wandering the stars, looking for some way to forget the predicament they'd found themselves in. She was thinking about the day before, when she'd stood on the edge of the Razor Crest, feet still on the sands of Tatooine. That was the moment of decision, the moment when she stepped onto the metal, leaving her past home behind. Right now, she was regretting it. Just a little.

"I'm still gonna need you to send us that ping." the man said. The Mandalorian did nothing, only sat in his chair, completely rigid. His eyes darted from where the Frog Lady was still asleep, to Tess watching him cautiously, then out to the X-Wings.

"Well, I'm not sure I have that hardware online." the Mandalorian said. Tess' head swiveled back to face him, and the Mandalorian mentally cursed at her look of utter loathing which dug into his armor.

"Just give them the ping." Tess whispered to him hurriedly, making sure that the two on the other end of the line didn't hear her.

"I can't." the Mandalorian whispered back. Tess' frown grew into a confused and frustrated glare. The Mandalorian couldn't bring himself to look at her. Her stormy eyes grew to be a raging inferno, the nightmare and their present situation all bubbling up to the surface of her mind. Her hands ached and her leg seemed to hurt even more, the metal digging into her flesh, sprouting a new found pain she hadn't had since the child attempted to heal it. It seemed that his efforts were only temporary, and Tess winced as a shocking spasm rose up her leg. The Mandalorian quickly turned, concern rippling through him.

"Are you all right?" he asked, words a little louder than he meant them to be. Tess closed her eyes shut, mouth puckering at the pain. She bit her lip, where already scabs had dried over from the amount of times she'd done it when her leg grew painful.

"We can wait." the ranger cut in. Both Mando and Tess froze. After a moment, they loosened, having realized that the fighters hadn't heard, and Tess looked down at her metal leg.

"I'm fine." she whispered, voice hoarse. The Mandalorian did not believe her, but he said nothing. He'd come to understand that whenever Tess said she was fine, she was lying, and knew it, too. She didn't say the words to make the Mandalorian believe she was all right, she spoke the words as a warning. A warning to back off. The Mandalorian obliged.

He turned back and waited for a moment, the silence spreading out like a yawning chasm. The only sound that could be heard was Frog Lady's soft breathing, still confined in the dreary prism of sleep. Tess didn't speak. She could barely breathe, waiting for the Mandalorian's reply.

"Yeah, I..." the Mandalorian started. "It doesn't seem to be working." Tess rubbed the bridge of her nose, eyes slightly closed as the Mandalorian fumbled over his words. Her eyebrows, which seemed to take on a life of their own, scrunched together. When Tess had been working in her mechanic's shop, Jo by her side, watching her carefully, her friend had pointed them out.

What about my eyebrows? Tess had asked, slightly annoyed that the girl had interrupted her work. The broken astromech picked apart in front of her was not going to fix itself. They scrunch up when you're concentrating. Jo had answered. Tess had then gone on to frown, which was a perfect example of what Jo had just spoken of. So? Tess had questioned, putting her tools down to look up at Jo. I just think it's adorable. Jo had replied softly, looking down at her bronze hands. Tess had gazed at her friend for a long time after that, her brain whirring. She had wanted to blanch at Jo's words. Tess Oprin was many things, but adorable was not one of them. Instead, Tess had simply looked back down to her work and continued on. Jo hadn't said anything after that.

"That's too bad." The ranger said, and Tess' insides flipped. "If we can't confirm you're not Imperial, you're gonna have to follow us to the outpost at Adelphi." Tess' eyes widened, and her breaths grew louder each second.

"Mando," she whispered fervently.

"I know, I know." he replied, and Tess watched as his head tilted to the side, his shoulders stiffening. The Mandalorian's hands shook slightly as he reached over the controls, trying to figure out what to do as the ranger continued to speak.

"They'll run your tabs." he finished, and then there was silence. The Mandalorian glanced at Tess, who's eyes were wide and watching him. Panic seemed to line the edge of her eyelids, and he could see blood seeping from a cut on her lip, where she'd bitten too hard as the shock in her leg ran up her body.

A girl of tragedy. In that moment the Mandalorian knew. He knew that Tess Oprin should not have been there with him, should not have gone with him. He hadn't realized the trouble he'd bring her into when he asked her to go with him. He hadn't realized what would happen to them. He'd promised to keep her safe, and yet here she was, a shivering little thing with a metal leg that hurt her and fear in her wrathful gaze. She was just a child, and the Mandalorian was a hunter, a man on the run, a man of danger. He shouldn't have brought Tess into this. He should have left her with the Marshal, who he knew would love Tess as if she were his own child.

What had he gotten them into?

"Oh, wait..." he said carefully. "There it is. Transmitting now." He flicked a switch on the console with a small beep, and Tess' shoulders slightly relaxed, but alarms continued to blare in her head. Suddenly, Frog Lady awoke with a gasp, a loud croaking noise erupting from her curved mouth. Both Tess and Mando turned to Frog Lady, who looked around wildly. Tess raised her hands to try and calm the woman down, and the Mandalorian's eyes narrowed.

"Be quiet!" He said. He'd meant to whisper, but his voice was so agitated that he spoke normally, and Tess winced at the volume.

"What's that?" Tess smacked her face in frustration as the Mandalorian faltered over his words in order to reply to the ranger.

"Uh," he uttered. "Nothing..." he couldn't find the right words to state next. Tess, seeing his hesitation, leaned closer to where his ear was and said.

"The hypervac is drawing off the exhaust manifold." she whispered. The Mandalorian leaned closer, then after a moment, repeated the words out loud. His voice was drawn out, and Tess wanted to punch his arm at the way it sounded like he was making this up as he went along. The Mandalorian cursed himself and looked back to the grunting Frog Lady, who immediately piped down. Tess stepped forward to look at the X-Wings. They stayed still, and did not move away.

"I don't think they bought it." Tess whispered to him.

"Me neither." he said back, and it hurt to get the words out, because it meant trouble. It potentially meant a fight. Tess looked to where she thought his eyes would be, and something flickered behind her pupils. Memories, unbidden and unwanted, pushed past the barriers of her mind. The nightmare, her parents, came boiling to the surface. The fear from the firefight wormed its way through the crevices of her slowly beating heart. She looked down at her feet, unable to keep contact with the Mandalorian.

A new voice entered the comms chat. "Carson, can you switch over to channel two?" Tess and Mando stiffened, sharing a look as the ranger they'd been talking to replied and the comms went silent. Tess pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders, limping nearer to stand beside Mando and look out at the X-Wing to their right.

"What do we do?" Tess asked. She did not say what was truly going through her mind, the thought that careened against her insides like a meteor barreling towards impact. Are they going to hurt us? The problem was, the Mandalorian didn't have an answer, because he did not know. He had no inclination of what the New Republic was about to do, and he hated himself for it. He couldn't comfort Tess, he couldn't tell her it was going to be alright, because he didn't know if it was.

"We wait." he finally answered. And so they waited.

After a moment, the wings on the ships beside them opened, moving into a combat position. Adrenaline ran along Tess' veins. What was happening? The Mandalorian looked to each ship, and under his helmet, a bead of sweat ran into his eyes. He had no idea what to do.

The ranger's voice spoke up again. "Was your craft in the proximity of New Republic Correctional Transport, Bothan-Five?" Tess looked questioningly to the Mandalorian, who said nothing.

There was silence.

Then the Mandalorian looked to the girl beside him. "Tess." he said her name softly, as if he were trying to tread delicately. Tess knew that voice. It was the voice that always came before something bad. It always came before somebody did something that would make her implode.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

The Mandalorian stared into her eyes, then said. "Sorry." 

Tess didn't have time to answer as the Mandalorian suddenly thrust the controls downward, and the ship flew forward. Tess screamed as she was sent flying down, hitting the control panel. The Mandalorian quickly braced Tess' body against his own, flying the ship with one hand as he careened them towards the white planet below.

The Mandalorian was vaguely aware of Tess shouting his name, but he didn't listen.

Tess grabbed onto his arm, which was around her, and held on tight, looking up to the window, and saw that they were flying through white clouds, fluffy and as soft as wisps of mist. Frog Lady had her hands spread out before her, a croaking scream on her lips. Tess hugged onto the control panel as Mando flew them up and down, maneuvering the ship with steady ease.

"Razor Crest, stand down." the voice of the man called Carson pierced the ship's interior. "We will fire. I repeat, we will fire." Tess gasped again as her knees banged against the floor of the ship, head resting on the controls as the Mandalorian pinned her down, keeping her from falling about the cockpit.

"Mando!" she yelled.

"Hold on!" he replied, then pushed the thrusters forward, and the ship went flying downwards. As quick as lightning he flung it back up, grabbed at Tess' arm, pulling her to share his seat. Tess didn't need to be told twice. She wrapped her arms around his neck, grabbing the seatbelt behind him with both hands, and the Mandalorian let the ship free fall downwards.

Frog Lady screamed, arms flailing in the air, and Tess bit the inside of her cheek, eyes closing as they fell through the clouds. Oblivion rose up to meet her, death sang in her ears, but the Mandalorian would not let them die that day, and he moved the ship to face forward as they dropped down. Tess couldn't watch, she buried her head into the Mandalorian cape and closed her eyes again, her ears throbbing as pressure seemed to push up against the side of her head. The ship moved this way and that, bobbing up and down.

At one point the rangers spoke again. "Come on, Razor Crest. Don't make us do it."

The ship hit something, and the whole cockpit faltered. Tess gasped and held tighter. She didn't dare open her eyes. The Mandalorian felt her freeze from where she grabbed at him. He breathed heavily and tried to keep the ship as steady as possible. It was difficult, and every so often the ship would bump into the white walls of the canyon.

The darkness that surrounded Tess' vision made it easier to forget where they were. The Razor Crest slammed onto the ground and slid across the floor, alarms blaring in the controls as the Mandalorian turned on the engine. they slid for a bit, then came under an overhang, and soon the craft stopped moving completely.

Tess couldn't open her eyes. The Mandalorian let out a heavy sigh and relaxed. He looked to where Tess had her head buried in his armored shoulder. He raised his hand to shake her a little.

"Tess." he said softly. Tess only shook her head vigorously, not daring to look up. The Mandalorian moved to stop the comms channel still spewing the rangers' talk, and switched off the power to the rest of the ship. Tess shivered, her insides growing cold.

"Tess." he said again. "It oka-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence as the ship suddenly gave another heaving jerk, falling deeper into the ground. The Mandalorian wrapped his arms around Tess, making sure she didn't bang her head on the metal as they jumbled and heaved, falling deeper into the ground until all they could see was darkness. The noises made Tess want to pass out, if only to stop the fear growing in her heart.

They fell deeper and deeper.

The Mandalorian grunted as the ship landed with a thud onto the soft ground, the entire craft giving a jerk that sent Tess' head straight for the metal. The Mandalorin grabbed her and cocooned her body with his own, trying to switch their positions as they landed hard on the metal ground. Tess' head banged against the Mandalorian's helmet, the cut from the attack on Tatooine splitting open, sending blood seeping from the wound. Tess winced as all went silent.

She looked up for a second, rolling off the Mandalorian and onto her back. Her eyes shifted in and out of focus as a pain shot through her chest when she breathed. Tess gasped, the clutching in her heart becoming unbearable. Blood dripped into her eyes.

Up through the broken window of the cockpit, Tess saw something white and fluffy falling against the panes of glass. It was ivory, pale and small, as if sand was falling from the sky. She suddenly became aware of how cold it had gotten, and shivered, a tremor running up her spine. She turned her head to the side, seeing the Mandalorian groggily getting up from where he lay against the console.

"Mando." she said, voice barely a whisper. The Mandalorian turned to where Tess watched the snow fall against the ship, a look of awe in her eyes. He got up when he saw the blood from her forehead, and her hands gripping her chest. A pained expression wormed its way onto her face.

She was in pain.

"Tess!" he yelled, moving down to the floor, picking the girl up carefully and placing her head in his lap. Her head lolled to the side and her hands fell away from her body. She winced when she breathed, and her eyes blinked rapidly.

"Tess." Mando muttered. "Stay with me." Tess' eyes closed longer this time. "Tess, stay with me. You're alright."

But Tess Oprin was not alright.

"Tess!" The Mandalorian frantically screamed.

The last thing Tess saw before she closed her eyes were the soft flakes of icy snow drifting through the frigid air. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE. 

Ok but before we get into the author's note can we just take a moment to appreciate these gifs I made of Tess and Din? I love my little space family sm... 

this next one's a bit sad and could be a spoiler for the end but I love it... 

sooo I'm gonna try and make this super short because my author's notes are getting way to long but HI, what did you think of this chapter? What did you think of Tess' horrible nightmare? What did you think of Mando and her's relationship kinda furthering, first with the banter at the beginning (wasn't that blanket toss just the cutest?) and then with Mando letting Tess hold onto him as they were chased? THEY ARE JUST TOO CUTE I CAN'T! Also, what did you think of Tess getting injured at the end? AND one finally thing, you might have noticed that her parent's signature phrase about the dawn (this will come into play later) was changed slightly from "When the dawn comes, it's a new day to fight" to "When the dawn breaks, it's a new day to fight". I realized that I just liked the second one a lot more and that's why I changed it. I'm not going to go back and edit the prologue, but just keep in mind that the sentence has changed slightly. 

ANYWAYS, as always, don't be afraid to comment or vote on anything you like, I LOVE reading your comments they make me so so happy! Until next time (where I torture Tess more and her and Mando go to a whole new level of cuteness). 

Love, Mal