REINA'S POV
"Reina!" He raced after me. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
I halted in my tracks and turned to him. The cold pierced every exposed part of me like tiny needles. The wind whipped through my hair and clothes. The flurried snow caused my vision to blur immensely, and I felt blind again. So much so, it actually scared me. Did I know what I was doing? Of course not. But there was no use sleeping around when there was work to be done...It was all part of the deal.
"Get back inside." Din stomped through the snow-covered ice that acted as the ground, crunching under every step he made. He grabbed my arm once he reached me and attempted to pull me along like I was a stubborn child, kicking and screaming.
"Let go of me, Din." I wrenched my arm out of his grip. "If you want to help, I'd be very grateful, but I'm going to start getting our systems back online. We have to start somewhere. We can't wait around anymore."
"You will freeze to death if you stay out here!" Din shouted back. "What will you do then, huh?"
"Fine!" I shoved passed him, reentered the cargo hold, and scoured around for some warm clothing. Tilly offered up her shawl, which I politely declined. Eventually, I innovated a poncho of sorts from blankets and a couple cords. After finding a pair of old gloves, I slipped on my goggles and face cover over my nose and mouth, and headed back outside. Din was waiting for me. "Happy?!"
"Reina..." Din chided.
"Forget it, I'll do it myself since you want to be a jerk about it."
"Reina, stop!"
This time, Din grasped both my arms, forcing me to face him, or at least my reflection in his helmet. Through the goggles, my silvery vision was dimmed. I tried to wriggle free, but his grip was tight. "Let go of me, Din." I repeated myself.
"Not until you talk to me."
"It's very simple, Din." I huffed. "We agreed to transport Tilly and her eggs safely to Trask. Thanks to you and those stunts you pull to escape the New Republic, we can't do that now until we fix the Crest. Are you going to help me or not?"
"Reina, this can wait til morning." Din said. "We have other pressing matters than rushing to get off this—"
"What if it was the Child dying?!" I snapped, and Din went silent. I breathed in the cold air and exhaled slowly to calm myself before continuing. "I think it has something to do these new powers...I felt their life force, Din. Tilly's eggs. I felt them while we were on Tatooine, and I felt them just now. The energy I felt, was growing weak. They are dying and I promised...we promised to help her get to Trask safely and in time to reach her husband. Her family is in danger. Imagine if it was our family..."
Din didn't say anything for a long time. He also didn't move his gaze down on me. His hands still gripped under my elbows.
"Say something..." I breathed, the frosted air exhaled from my mouth.
"I hate it when you win."
I smiled underneath my face mask. "We have lots of work to do."
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THIRD PERSON POV
The wind howled around Mando and Reina as they inspected the Razor Crest's condition. It was much much worse than either of them expected. Much of the outer skin of the ship had been sheared off, exposing inner machinery. Colorful hydraulic fluid spewed and stained the snow and ice.
"It's going to take a miracle to get the Crest flying again..." Reina sighed, rubbing her gloved hand over the injured ship. Her heart even ached at the horrendous sight.
"And even more of a miracle to get out of here once we do..." Mando added, looking around the ice cavern. There was little around them except frozen white emptiness, an eerie, freezing waste filled with blue shadows and no visible indications of how they were going to fly out.
Reina and Mando began working on repairing and rebooting the ship's systems. Any physical damage was going to have to wait due to what was considered first priority. Zapping the metal and wires with tools caused sparks to fly out wildly. The buzzing noises were so loud, they didn't hear the babbling until they paused for inspection. They both turned their heads to see the Child waving his tiny arms and making funny noises.
"Hey, Kid," Mando said. "Why don't you come over here and give us a hand? Make yourself useful."
"Oh, don't be like that." Reina rolled her eyes behind her goggles. She rose to her feet and walked over to the baby. Scooping him up, she laughed, "Let's get you back inside. You'll freeze out here." She was only inside the ship for a few seconds when Mando heard her cry, "Din, come quick!"
Mando dropped everything in an instant and rushed to Reina's aid. "What is it?"
"Tilly's gone! And so are her eggs!"
"Dank farrik." Mando cursed and stepped outside again. He searched around the ship and found heat signatures in the snow, footprints that led deeper into the ice cavern. "Wait here with the kid. I'll bring her back."
"Okay." Reina nodded, cuddling the child in her arms. "Be safe."
Mando headed off into the tunnel with blaster in hand, while Reina returned to getting as many repairs as she could completed.
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REINA'S POV
I heard the blaster shots and immediately thought trouble. I circled around the ship, weapon ready, only to screech to a halt as I saw Din and Tilly emerge from the tunnel...with a massive horde of ugly grey spiders, some as small as my hand, and others the size of the Crest...
"What the—What. Did. You. DO!?"
"Get in the ship!" Din shouted, firing at the tiny spiders scrurrying at his feet.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" I charged back to the ship. The three of us squeezed in through the broken hull, stomping across the cargo bay and up the ladder to the cockpit. The terrifying sound of hundreds of spiders' legs skittering followed close behind. Once we all piled in the cockpit, Din attempted to seal the door, but had to end up fighting as more and more of the creepy-crawlies forced their way in with terrible eagerness. Din and I worked together to fire at them, reducing whole clusters of them to globs of foul-smelling green ooze.
The child shrieked at my feet and my eyes shot down to see one spider clutching the baby's head. Before I could, Tilly fired her small blaster and the spider burst apart.
"Stand back, Reina!" Din pushed me away with one arm and used the other to ignite his flamethrower, sending a jet of flames into the gap, burning the spiders to a crisp. The creatures made hideous, high-pitch screeches as they shriveled into ash, while the survivors scurried away in retreat. At last, we managed to close the hatch.
"Are you okay?" Din grasped my arm. I squeezed his hand. "I'm fine. Let's get out of here."
We were not safe yet. Outside the Crest, more and more tons of spiders varying in sizes kept coming, swarming the ship. Their legs made rapid clinking sounds on the frosted glass of the viewport above our heads. Din jumped into action and fired up the engines. I wasn't sure how Din was going to be able to see where he piloting—the spiders had accumulated so thickly that they begun to block out the light. The baby in my arms whimpered, his large eyes wide with terror. He wasn't the only one: My stomach churned and tightened so harshly, I felt like I was going to puke.
The glimmer of hope shone itself though as I felt the Crest pushing herself up—only for it to be totally crushed when a giant spider crashed on top and slammed the ship back into the icy cavern floor. Some of its eight legs straddle the upper level while it used its others to smash through the dome. Shattered glass rained down on us. Through what remained of the shield, Din and I could see the monster's proboscis, the horrific suctioning mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth, its beady black eyes filled with hunger...
"Din..." I reached out and clung onto my partner's shoulder. Within seconds now...we would be dead...There was so many things I wanted to say to the Mandalorian. Tell him how much it meant to me that I was given the honor to call him by his name...I didn't care that Tilly was curled up in fear next to me and could hear me. I wanted to say his true name one last time. His dark eyes burned in my memory...
"Din, I—"
Blaster fire suddenly erupted—a volley of deadly bolts riddling the massive creature, hammering it until it went rigid, trembled, and fell limped, sliding off the front of the Crest. Its legs curled up around it, though, in a death clench.
My breath got caught in my throat. The series of blaster fire continued as Din rose from his seat and headed down to the cargo hold. I followed close behind him. When we both reached it, I gagged violently, covering my nose and mouth with my arm. The floor and walls were littered with bodies of dead spiders and oozing guts, a thick foul stench wafted in the air. The surviving spiders were mostly gone, but had left behind layers of crystalline webs that sent nightmarish chills down my spine.
Din helped me along as I struggled to maintain my composure. The webs stuck to my hair and clothes as we passed through them to get to the broken hull. The ickiness of it made my skin crawl. We finally emerged outside and found out who had saved our skins.
The New Republic.