THIRD PERSON POV
"So this is where you've been." Mando stepped in through the sliding panel and into the home of Tilly and her husband. Reina, sitting at the table with the frog people, turned her head and smiled. "Here I am." She then bowed her head to Tilly and her husband, bidding them a fond farewell. "Thank you for allowing us to wait for him here." With the baby in her arms, she joined Mando's side and the three of them headed back to the Razor Crest.
Back at the docks, the Mandalorian and the bounty hunter gazed at the supposedly-repaired ship...It was a sloppy mess, patched together with a mixture of welded metal, ropes, hose clamps, and half-ass effort. Mando looked over at the Mon Calamari dockworker. "I gave you a thousand credits, and this was the best you could do?"
"He said he could make it fly," Reina defended the worker, who had shrugged at the comment. "Not make her pretty..."
Mando was handed the receipt, in which he approved it with no other argument. He, Reina, and the child then boarded the poor Crest. Inside, nets and more ropes dangled from the walls, where they had been used for various types of makeshift repairs. Reina could sense the stress building up inside the Mandalorian as he heavily sighed with frustration and took hold of the controls, activating the main thrusters. They all felt the thrusters tremble as the ship miraculously rose from the port.
"Mon Calamari...Unbelievable..." he muttered, in which Reina scoffed in amusement. The child was giggling in delight in her arms. Mando's entire body bounced around with the ship as he glanced over his shoulder to them. "I finally know where I'm taking you," he said directly to the baby. "but it's going to be a bumpy ride."
"That's putting it lightly..." Reina mumbled to herself. Mando hit a button and the Crest lurched forward violently, leaving Trask behind as he prepared to jump to hyperspace. Almost instantly, the Crest was sputtering through space, engines stalling at the cut-rate Mon Calamari repair job began to disintegrate around them in real time. Reina followed Mando down to the cargo hold, where he pulled back a dented metal panel, revealing a dark narrow shaft that neither of them could reach very far in. However...
"No, that's a terrible idea." Mando stared at his partner, who shrugged helplessly.
"Do you have a better one?" she asked in a monotoned voice.
Mando let out a long sigh and stuck the baby inside the shaft and guided him with the best of his ability, Reina giving moral support. The child poised himself over a partially dismantled circuit board of exposed wiring.
"Alright..." Mando said. "let's try this again. Do you, have the wire?" Reina had to fight the urge to laugh as her partner spoke in slow, articulated words. On the other side, the child, visibly confused, glanced the wires he managed to disconnect in both his tiny hands, his brow wrinkled. The problem was, he now had to put them back in reverse... "Now," the Mandalorian continued. "you're going to plug the red wire, where the blue wire goes on the board. Put, put the red wire—yes—the red wire where the blue goes. But don't let them touch."
Reina peered in the shaft behind Mando's shoulder and her bottom lip stuck out in pity at the confused, hesitant baby. "Poor thing...Try again, Din. Maybe a little slower?" She had to hand it to her partner, for he was being very patient with the child.
"You see where you took the blue wire out? Yes. Now, put the red one—no, don't put the blue one back...Put the red one where the blue one was, and the blue one where the red one was." He and Reina watched as the child began fiddling with the wires. "Be, be careful. Those wires are oppositely charged, so keep them apart. Make sure you hold them apart—no, hold them—"
"Oh, oh, wait—" Reina reached out.
Too late.
There was an audible pop of electrical current and a puff of smoke that floated from the scorched hairs on top of the baby's tiny head. Both Reina and Mando sighed in defeat. "Are you okay?" The Mandalorian calmly asked. The child looked at them and blinked.
"Well," Reina patted Mando's shoulder. "It was worth a shot."
Later, it was chow time. Reina and Mando sat back to back while the child was perched on top of a crate. They all drank from bowls of hot soup as Mando reflected on the situation. "There's no way we're making it to Corvus in this shape..."
"Corvus, huh?" Reina scoffed, taking another sip. "So that's where we're going?"
"Sorry, I thought I told you already."
"I forgot to ask." Reina shrugged. She subconsciously leaned a little more into Mando's back. "So, you found out where a Jedi was from Bo-Katan?"
"I did." Mando nodded, and he reciprocated the gesture by pressing back. The two were practically supporting each other. "Bo-Katan told me we'll find a Jedi named Ahsoka Tano on the planet Corvus in the city of Caladan. She said as long as we tell the Jedi Bo-Katan sent us, she'll help us."
"Ahsoka Tano..." Reina hummed. She heard the hiss of Mando lifting his helmet to drink from his bowl, and then the sealing mechanism when he lowered it. Although Reina never asked, and despite having already seen him, Mando has not allowed her to see his face again...Sure, he didn't stop her when she called him by his real name, but it hit Reina deep as she truly realized how important Mando's commitment to the Mandalorian creed was, or as Bo-Katan revealed, the "Children of the Watch"...
"I, need to apologize." Reina cleared her throat. "For what I said before."
Mando knew what she was referring to. "Don't worry about it. I'm not mad at you. I understand, why you said those things."
"That's no excuse." Reina said, straightening her posture. The two bounty hunters pivoted in their spot to face the other. "I never should have questioned you or your integrity. The child has always been your number one priority. You've always shown that. I'm really am sorry that I even accused you of such selfish motives..."
Mando reached his hand out and tucked a loose strand behind Reina's ear. She could see his hand cupping her jawline in her silvery reflection in the T-shaped visor. Mando scoffed lightly as she leaned more into his palm. "Fine, if it will make you better, I forgive you."
Reina then stretched both hands up and clasped them on each side of his helmet. "Do you trust me?" she breathed softly.
"Yes."
She closed her eyes and lifted the helmet, that familiar hiss echoed in her sensitive ears, just enough where Mando's mouth was exposed. Then, she tilted her chin up so their lips would lock, Mando guiding her face with the hand that closed around her cheek. Once their lips connected, Reina melted. Her heartbeat was thumping so violently against her chest, she was convinced Mando could hear it.
Suddenly, she felt all her senses heightened. Her skin crawled with goosebumps. Her ears could pick up not only her heart, but also Mando's, beating together in unison. A tingling formed in her irises behind her closed lids. Just as she was going to initiate a stronger kiss, Reina retreated, breaking her lips away from Mando's. Her chin lowered, but she didn't move her hands, so the helmet remained over his mouth.
"Reina?" She heard his real voice without the modulator, sending another chill through her body. "Is something wrong?" His lips brushed against her forehead while his other hand found its spot on her other cheek. He lifted her chin and kissed her before she could react. Sinking into this kiss made Reina weak, and if it wasn't for Mando's hold under her jawline, she would've broken the connection again. Her grip on his helmet squeezed the beskar steel. After a long moment, Mando finally released Reina and the latter returned the helmet to its place with a satisfying sealed click.
When her eyes fluttered, she gasped softly, for for a moment, a bright whirl of color of reds, blues, oranges, and greens flashed before her and disappeared just as quickly, returning to the normal silvery and black vision she'd grown used to. Assuming she was reacting to how close their faces were, Mando chuckled through his modulator.
"I suppose...it's been awhile, hasn't it?"
There were so many thoughts sprinting through her mind, Reina barely comprehended the question. When Mando lowered his hands away from her face, she felt the sense of release wash through her whole body, like she had been in a trance and it was only just broken once his touch was gone from her skin. She had never felt such strong emotions and endured heightened senses like that.
Does it have something to do...with these new powers I have? Reina pondered, but then realized she hadn't responded to Mando yet. She smiled her best and nodded. "I suppose it has." She paused. "And as...wonderful, as it was, we still have the Crest to worry about, heh." Reina then smirked when an idea popped into her brain. "And I think I have a solution."
"Yes?"
"How would you feel about taking a detour to Nevarro?"