Saving Ragnar
Paz Vizsla x reader
Mandalorian S3 E4 SPOILERS!
no beta read, we die like the younglings
1566 words, angst with a happy ending, no y/n
Literally just self-indulgence.
“Mom, are you sure I’m ready to start sparring with the others?”
“Of course you are sweetheart. Why wouldn’t you be?” I respond, brushing some dust off of his brand-new helmet.
“Well… I’m… I haven’t been with the covert as long as the other kids. What if I haven’t trained enough. What if I embarrass you and dad. What if–” I hold up a hand to stop him and pull him into a hug.
“Ragnar, you could never embarrass us. We love you very much and know you have trained more than enough. But failing in a sparring match will teach you things that you will not learn otherwise.” I take his hands and crouch so we are eye to eye, well… visor to visor, “remember what we have taught you and trust yourself.”
“I’ll try.” he sighs. I shake my head.
“Don’t try. Do.” I say softly.
“She’s right.” I hear from the entryway of our little home alcove. I see my husband leaning against the wall. He walks towards us and crouches next to me, putting a hand on Ragnar’s shoulder, “We are so proud of you, and no matter what happens today, we know you will learn from today.”
Ragnar takes a deep breath and nods.
“Come, the others have already begun training,” Paz says, standing up and patting our son on the shoulder. This seems to get the young boy excited, he practically runs out of the alcove.
“He will be fine cyare,” Paz says, putting an arm around my shoulders.
“I know that, but does he?” I sigh.
“Let’s go find out.”
….
A few minutes later, Ragnar has begun his first-ever sparring match.
It begins quite mildly, with a little bit of a scuffle as both children try to gain the upper hand, but Ragnar comes out on top, throwing his opponent in the sand.
Once declared the winner, he looks over to us, watching from a distance. I clang my vambraces together in excitement. He nods and brings his focus back to the judge. It is then that I notice Din’s little one standing across from Ragnar as if to challenge.
“Is he putting his baby into a match?” Paz asks no one in particular.
“He knows his child best,” I respond, continuing to watch as Din convinces the judge it will be ok.
Ragnar chooses to fight with darts to which Paz remarks, “good choice.”
While waiting for the training darts, Ragnar begins speaking to Din, asking why the child does not wear a helmet, then saying he is too young to fight. Din reminds him of part of the Creed, sounding a little bit passive-aggressive, but whatever, that's just Din.
I sigh when Ragnar speaks, “Well, I know.”
“Well, we know what he will learn today then,” Paz states, a smile in his voice at his son’s sass.
After a moment of Din teaching Grogu how to fire the darts, the match begins.
The first two points go to Ragnar, quite easily, seeing as Grogu looked like he did not know what to do.
After another brief talk from Djarin, the next round begins.
Ragnar fires his dart the same as before, but this time, the small child jumps out of the way and completely over him, then back to his original position, firing all three darts and winning the challenge.
Ragnar looks around, confused, before looking back at us. I nod to him as Paz says, “One doesn’t speak unless one knows.”
Ragnar visibly sighs before walking toward an empty part of the beach to calm down.
“A valuable lesson has been learned today,” the Armorer speaks up, “go make sure he remembers it.”
We both nod and begin walking toward our son, but the flying beast comes flying over the mountain.
My heart stops, this creature has been picking us off for weeks, and it is flying directly toward the easiest target.
My son.
I'm not even sure I'm breathing as I take to the sky, willing my jetpack to go faster and faster, but it is still not enough. The beast is getting further and further ahead, Ragnar still flailing in its talons.
My pack begins to run out of fuel and I feel tears streaming under my helmet. I whisper, “please…no.”
I am forced to land, Paz and Din not far behind.
Even though I can't fly, I can still run, so I do. I don't even think as I hurdle over rocks and bushes, ignoring the burning in my legs and lungs.
I don’t notice my husband and friend running behind me to stop me until they each grab one of my arms.
“No! We have to get him! I can’t lose him!” I scream, fighting to get out of their hold.
“We can’t get him like this, we need to regroup. Look,” Din points, “Bo-katan is following the beast to its nest. When she comes back we will know exactly where it is.” he reasons.
I take a deep breath, following the ship with my eyes.
….
When Bo-katan vets back to the covert she immediately proposes a plan to save the boy.
We leave the covert within the hour and land where we have to start walking.
The sun is setting by the time we reach the peak holding the nest.
We make camp for the night. I help prepare the food, thankful for something to keep my mind off of my son, who will have to spend the night alone and scared in the lair of the beast.
Din explains how meals work in groups like this as the food is distributed.
Bo stands up to find somewhere to eat, but Paz stops her. “You are the leader of the war party. You have the honor of staying by the fire. This is the Way.” he says, taking my hand so we can find a place to eat together.
We eat in silence, having nothing to say in this solemn environment.
Fifteen minutes later, our helmets are back on, and we are back with the group, settling down for the night.
Sleeping on the ground next to my husband is not an unfamiliar experience, but it seems wrong to sleep when my child is not safe at home, surrounded by his family. I stay silent I feel tears reach my eyes.
Paz seems to sense my distress in his sleep as he pulls me closer to him, mumbling nonsense as he dreams.
Eventually, my tears fade and the feelings of fear and sadness in my heart are replaced with resolve, we will get our son back.
I don't know when or how I fell asleep but I am woken by my husband, who is gently shaking my shoulder.
The second I remember where we are and why, I’m up.
We have a short breakfast before re-stating the plan and beginning the climb up the peak.
Reaching the bundle of branches and sticks, I notice the eerie silence within the nest. Once we reach the edge of the nest, Din scans the area, pointing out heat signatures from the left.
Paz takes off immediately, against everyone’s protests, “He’s my son!” he says running in the direction Din pointed, shouting for our son.
He is knocked over by three baby beasts screeching and snapping at him, hungry for food. The mother comes flying up to the nest, alerted by the babies’ noise.
Paz covers himself with parts of the nest, trying to hide from the bird.
The bird begins regurgitating something for the young ones, and I almost lose my grip on the edge of the nest when I see that something is my son.
“Help me!” he calls out when he sees us.
I let out a breath of relief as Paz exclaims “He's alive!”
Paz activates his jetpack, flying toward the creature’s face to get it to drop Ragnar. The beast holds Paz in its mouth and Ragnar in its talons as it takes off, the war party not far behind.
Bo-katan is the first to attempt to grab Ragnar, getting smacked down by a wing in the process.
I am the next one to approach, grabbing Ragnar’s hand and pulling. He didn't budge.
I latch onto the creature’s ankle, pulling out my blade to get it to loosen its grip.
I didn't account for getting scratched off the leg by the other foot, earning deep gashes on my elbow and side.
I cry out as I fall, spinning out of control until I steady myself with my pack, landing on the side of a peak.
Paz is then released from the beast’s jaws as Bo-katan stabs its face. He lands right next to me, groaning in pain.
“Are you alright?” I breathe.
“Yes, you?”
“I’ll live,” I respond, holding a hand to one of the deeper gashes.
We watch as Din lands a successful stab at the creature’s ankle. It drops Ragnar and Din races to stop his fall.
He latches onto Ragnar just as the others take down the beast, flying him over to where we hold on to the rocks.
When they land Paz firmly asks, “are you okay?” Ragnar clambers over to me, clinging to my chest before breathlessly answering, “I’m okay dad.”
“Thank you,” I say to Din over Ragnar’s helmet.
“This is the Way” he replies
“This is the Way” we echo.
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I’m still on my “PAZ VIZSLA DESERVED MORE!” rage but now I’m introducing, “I WANNA SEE MORE OF RAGNAR VIZSLA!”
I’d like to say that both Paz and Ragnar are the natural leaders in the covert (other than the armourer of course). Like in that one scene in Mandalorian S3, when Din Djarin comes back to the covert, Paz Vizsla got all these Mandalorians backing him up with their blasters when he goes to basically say, “You’re not welcome here, gtfo,” to Din ,(but Din is indeed welcomed because he bathed in the living waters, definitely irked Paz), like damn.
Also another scene where Din is tryna talk the covert into protecting Nevarro, every Mandalorian is skeptical until MANdalorian Paz Vizsla speaks up. Damn. That’s a guy with influence.
Ragnar probably picked that up from his dad. The smaller blue is confident in voicing out his thoughts, especially his displeasure about Grogu during training (leave the green thing alone :( the baby is like 6 decades older than you). Not to mention, he seems to already be the leader amongst the other foundlings in the covert.
I’m referring to that one scene where the two tribes finally meet and there’s tension cause ew one tribe is showing their faces and ew one of tribe is not. The tension is so bad Paz turns to his son and tells him to “bring the rest of the foundlings back into the tents,” and the little Mandalorians do follow Ragnar.
I find it adorable because that whole interaction suggests that Ragnar is responsible despite his young age and is clearly a confident kid who I can infer is sociable with the rest of the foundlings. Leaders are meant to have influence, social skills (to fuel that influence), strength and most of all they put their people first.
The death of Paz Vizsla was him sacrificing himself for the rest of the Mandalorians, for Mandalore. I have to agree with the people who said that he truly died a Mandalorian’s death, a fight till the end. He fought with honour and no matter how unnecessary I found his death to be, it had an impact and I cannot deny that.
I believe that Ragnar should know by now that his dad passed by fighting for Mandalore and Mandalorians and I’m hoping that if they ever show us Ragnar in the future, he has embodied the same characteristics his father had (perhaps even better).
Also I wanna see Ragnar as Manda’lorr. Give me Ragnar Vizsla, great leader big heart, Manda’lorr of Mandalore.
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