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The meeting had gone as planned, you would be leaving that same night. No more meditation in the Temple Ziggurat, no more late nights in the libraries or study halls, and no more gazing up at the reflective ceiling in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Though, you could not say that it had been like this for very long.The Clone Wars took much from you, most of all came from the delicate fragments of your relationship with Padmé and Anakin. This would be the snap they needed for complete separation.You heard a call of your name from behind you, speeding closer until two hands came to grasp at your shoulders and spin you around to face them.Anakin, sweet Ani, had stared at you in disbelief.“You can’t be serious, I just heard what you—”“Anakin it isn’t so simple and—you spied on my conversation?”“A conversation about you leaving the order! Willingly!”“It was more of a decision and less of a conversation,” you spoke definitively.Leaving the order felt shameful, selfish, and downright wrong. You had dedicated your life to learning the ways of the Jedi, following the code laid out before you in scrolls and teachings. You had completed Windu’s training, mastered every form and technique he could possibly drill into your head and embed them into your every waking move and this was all you had to show for it. Leaving, scampering away at the first sign of conflict on your planet, a planet you have not been dedicated to in years.With a sway of your Jedi robes, you rushed to your room, picking at the little items you came with. You had to leave as soon as possible, as quickly as you could to avoid the lingering pain that threatened to unleash at the back of your throat. Memories of calm nights with Padmé flashed across your mind. On the balcony of her apartment on Coruscant, stealing shy kisses and overlooking the city and the vast expanse of the sky where you felt most at home. Coruscant felt like home just as much as Anakin and Padmé did. Sometimes Naboo felt like home, in that sweet sweet garden in which you shared some of your most precious memories. Denarii, however, did not feel like home. Moving from Padawan to Jedi Knight had lessened any time you had with your two most loved companions and you think now that you’re leaving, maybe, one day you could come back to them and show them the true dedication you had always envisioned in your mind, but held back because of that same aching guilt you feel now.You doubt you could ever face Padmé seeing as you’re leaving without so much as a warning. Even now, it was hard for you to look Anakin in the eye and repeat to him the sweet nothings he would whisper into your ear on particularly hard days. It was not often that you would be at the temple at the same time, but when you were nothing could stop him from ending the day curled against your side on that firm standard-issued temple mattress.“Please—just… let's talk about this,” Anakin calmed his nerves before pulling at your hand to sit closely against his side on the bare mattress in the room. The linens had already been taken to be cleaned for its next resident.“Why are you doing this? What will Windu and Obi-Wan think? Padmé?!” He spoke incredulously. “We’re force bonded, you can’t honestly believe that I’d be so happy to let you leave.”You had no answer. You knew what they would think, what they were thinking already. And you were sure Anakin knew as well, force bond be damned.Your home, Denarii, has begun its own civil war in which you must answer the call. You are the only Jedi from your planet, the only one of your age group to have seen the horrors of war and its consequences. They called to you, personally, and demanded your immediate return. In any other circumstance, they would never ask you to come back, you had turned your back on them after all. The Denarii are prideful people, self-absorbed in only a manner that a rich and prosperous planet full of rich and prosperous people could be.And one thing about Denarii and its people was that when the call comes you answer, no matter the circumstance or situation. You knew this well when you left to join the Order, and you knew this well even now.“I can’t just stand by and hear news of my people suffering and killing each other with no reprieve, Anakin.” You bite at your tongue for lying to him, you were answering the call of a long-forgotten friend, not the people. Even then, the people would hardly call you, a deserter of your kind.“Then I’ll go with you,” he stood and took your hands in his own. “We do this together like we always have.” You suppose he has always been there. The Gathering, meditation, padawan training, missions, the Clone Wars. He had seen you at your best and worst and now he was seeing you at your most pathetic.You gulped. “This is different, this is Denarii.” A planet in which no outsider is welcome to even fly in its gravitational pull. Removed from the republic, removed from the society you had come to know over all your years of travel as a Padawan and Jedi knight. As much as you wanted Anakin to be by your side, you could never ask him to do what is required for entry into Denarii, not with Padmé and Obi-Wan still here with him. Not when he was the Chosen One.Because that was just it, he was the Chosen One. He belonged to the people of the Republic, of the Jedi Order, not to you. He belonged to Padmé, not to you, no matter how much they wished to reassure you on the matter it could never ease the quaking of your heart as he placed his hands any lower than the small of your back or the sweating palms you would have as Padmé would languidly draw her lips from the base of your neck and down to your chest. No, nothing could remedy the uneasy pain and guilt you felt as you violated your code. It is like an itch, it cannot be helped that you so fervently attempt to devote yourself to its teachings.The Jedi guilt was bred into all of you, few could break through that barrier and fewer could truly act on it.“Please,” he pleaded with you. “Don’t go…”Jedi were not meant to form emotional attachments or attachments of any kind for that matter and you reminded yourself of this every day for the last twenty years of your life. And still, you sit here holding tightly on Anakin’s hands wishing that Padmé were here with you to calm his nerves, to ease what you could not. What you could never.“Anakin, please,” you grabbed at the cusp of his chin and tilted his head up to face you. His eyes were red and teary, ready to burst at the sight of your leaving. “My whole life I have been trained to fight. Children on Denarii know what war means and what it entails. It’s why I survived so long in the Clone Wars, it's why they need me now.” You took a moment before bringing your hand down from his chin to his chest, just resting over his heart.Holding tightly, you continued. “How could I possibly live with myself if I knew I could help stop this war, but decide not to? I’m a Jedi, a keeper of the peace. What good am I if I can’t do the one thing I have been taught to do?”“And what about what I need, or Padmé and Windu, what the younglings need? You can’t just quit and leave as if none of this ever happened at all. When you're gone that's it, I heard what the council said. You have to turn in your saber and leave tonight.”You nodded at that. Your leaving would mean the end of being a Jedi. You wonder now if you would have ever reached the master level. You’d have no padawan to leave behind, Windu made sure of it when you first felt the unbalance from your home planet.“I’m sorry Anakin. I’ll find you when it’s all over and then…we can go on from there. The next time I see you and Padmé you’ll be a Jedi master and her, well, I’m not sure she could get any better than she is now could she?” There was this desolate look in your eyes as you said this. Padmé, you wished you could see her before you left. The last time you had laid eyes on the woman she carried a small, pink, sample of something in her hand and news of children. Not one, no, two beautiful unborn babies she would be carrying for the foreseeable future. Two tiny blends of the two people you loved the most would be born and you could not be there to see them.You would never know their names or see them grow. Perhaps that was for the better.With one final look at Anakin, you unclipped your saber from your belt and went to take off your robes in an attempt to give them to him. A token of yourself that you could never take back. Quickly, he held his hands out to you, stopping you from handing them over to him as a peace offering and remembrance.“Keep them, I’ll live better knowing that you’ll be safe with them. Besides—” he looked down at the saber you had crafted alongside him, sharing a sister crystal from the caves of the ice planet of Ilum stacked atop the alluring purple Hurrikaine crystal you shared with your master. Where Anakin’s shone a brilliant blue, yours mimicked that of Mace Windu, the rare and elusive violet-hued energy. “The council would never know that you took it.”Windu would surely know, though the force tells you little of if he would care.And that was it, no more fighting to put up with because if Anakin had to see you go, it would be in a magical showing of love and compassion and not the dire and dangerous circumstances in which it really was. He held you up until he could no more, and you were grateful to feel his love before you would have to wait a lifetime to see him again.You wrote letters for him, Windu, Obi-Wan, and Padmé. Things to hold on to your memory if they so pleased.When you boarded the old Delta-7 starfighter and turned to look down at Anakin, who had refused to leave your side up until this point, you came to the sudden realization that you could die. You could go about this whole Civil War and never see him again and he would never know. No one outside of Denarii would ever know.“I’ll see you soon,” Anakin spoke, using the force to ease your worries and wrap around you like a smothering hug. The bond between you two was reverberating at the back of your skull like a heartbeat loud and all-encompassing. You wondered what would happen with your bond now that you would be so far away for so long. Would he feel your pain? Yes, definitely. Could he reach you on Denarii even through the force? No, certainly not.As you rode off of the landing pad, you never turned to look back.
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Per aspera ad astra
Rebuilding the hut was the easy part, actually living in it was an entirely different story. Years of wading through Tatooine’s dune sea had done its part in completely demolishing “Ben Kenobi's” hut. When you originally found this place and decided to settle down, you knew that some part of it would have already been trashed by raiders or Jawas, but you'd figured that at least the roof would still be there. The force drew you here for a reason, but you still aren't quite on board with the fact that not only had it been entirely ransacked save for Obi-Wan's workbench, but the roof of the hut had caved in long before you had even set foot off of Denarii. Finding salvation from Tatooine’s boiling suns (yes, that's right, there's more than one) and damn near blasphemous waves of sand was hard enough with a roof, but it was even harder getting used to it without one. Still, you persevered, and between the back-and-forth trips from your delta starfighter and the hut you had somehow managed to fasten a roof on the damn place. For a moment, you learn to enjoy the simple things. For whatever reason Obi-Wan had been out here, he certainly lived like a hermit. He was far enough away from civilization that no one could ever take much note of the hut that you lived in now. Save for the Tuscan Raiders and the Jawas, who, albeit against your will, you learn to communicate with. It was either this or you would lose your humidifier unit.As quickly as you were able to get back on your feet, you dropped just as much. Your nights were filled with nightmares and memories of the years-long past, and you were sensitive to temperature now. On some nights, you wished that your bones would ache in the way that everyone else's would if you had been like everyone else. The force is quiet now, it had never been like this before you went to Denarii. No, it's still and cold, and desolate and entirely too quiet. The universe feels too quiet. Though you know this is entirely untrue.Over some years you've been able to piece together what exactly happened in the galaxy while you were stuck on your home planet fighting a war that simply wasn’t yours to fight. Darth Vader (who you refuse to think about) and Darth Sidious (who you wish you could have staked with your own saber) came to a head, and with that, the Galactic Empire began. You were sure that it lasted a long time, but you would not be there for it. The only thing you could go off of was whatever the workers at the cantina were able to tell you. You took their advice and their history lessons with a grain of salt. Still, the dictatorship grew and replaced the Galactic Republic right as you went off the deep end. Sometimes, you wonder if the imbalance you felt on Denarii had really been because of the Civil War or the Empire. Was it all for nothing? You had heard about the Death Star, and that was actually pretty crazy when you think about it now, and then you had heard about how it got blown up. You tuned out most of the conversation when the mention of a certain Skywalker was brought up. You had a feeling you knew what happened when you felt the sensation of the bond snap. You remember it like it was yesterday. Really, it wasn’t much before that for you.
Per aspera ad astra
Some things could never go back to the way they were, and you, of all people, knew that better than anyone else. So, now you're here. On the brisk sands of Tatooine fading into the background of the galaxy. It's not what you imagined a Jedi like yourself to be doing, but you could hardly call yourself a Jedi now after everything that happened. Your code has been broken, your robes have been stored away, and the weight you hold in your heart sits heavy on your chest in a way that the force would have never let happen. It's still there, inside of you waiting to burst forth and take hold of you all over again, but you're not quite sure you could let it. The force had been your downfall, you were sure that it was Anakin's as well, and from what you know, it was even Padme's. Your people may have been right, being a Jedi brought more evil than good. So much for keepers of peace.You were knocked out of your thoughts as a rogue metal sheet had fallen from your door and landed on the ground with a resounding clang! Odd, you thought you had fixed that panel for good not too long ago. Shaking yourself from your thoughts, you let the door swing open and reached for a welding tool you had brought in from your ship.This is when your headache began. You got them often. Very often. It felt like your brain was trying to pull itself from your skull, and while you would love to entertain the idea of never having to remember anything that has ever happened in your life up until this point, you would like to keep the things in your body where they have always been. Maybe these hot days were finally getting to you. Sure, the force led you to Obi-Wan's house, but you also knew that you couldn't settle anywhere that wasn't blazing hot. You’d probably rot from the inside out, or at least it would feel like it. You dreaded the thought of having to take a trip somewhere else because of some minuscule headaches. Really, if only your master could see you now.Before you could finish welding off the last bit of metal plating, another crash sounded from within the hut. You rose to your feet quickly, and against every nerve flying off in your brain telling you not to, you reached for your belt. A force of habit.“What the—” Nothing. There was nothing there other than broken shards of a clay pot you used to pour your water. You felt like you were going insane, and at this point, you figured maybe it really was the heat.Your head was pounding, your door was broken, and now there were broken pieces of clay mixing with water on the floor of your very not architecturally sound hut. What a terrible way to start off the day.Then you heard it. The faint semblance of a child's giggle in the pantry of the hut.You had always been great with children, but you are pretty positive that there has never been one in your hut, and they never will be, for that matter. So why exactly were you hearing an airy giggle coming from where you store your food?While your hand itched to reach for the cylindrical weapon dangling steadily from your waist, you instead went for the blaster that rested on a small table by the door. Think smart, you told yourself. If this actually was a kid, would you really want them to go blabbing about the pretty colors you were waving around at them and how hot it was?You moved from one corner to another before finally making it to the pantry and letting your eyes land on a tiny figure bobbing up and down, reaching for a pack of rations you had stored the other day. A tiny green blob in beige robes with ears so long you were sure that you could hold both hands against his head and spread your fingers, and it would still not be enough to measure the wingspan of them.“Hey kid,” you spoke cautiously. “Let’s not do that, okay?” When the thing turned around, you nearly screamed. It was so terribly haunting to feel like you were looking down at a tiny version of one of the Jedi you had trained with. A short and pudgy visage of Master Yoda stood staring up at you. As opposed to the old Jedi, his eyes were much wider and arguably cuter than those of the elderly creature. He was tiny, and still, he had those same wrinkles that the master had deepened over time. You were sure that this wasn't him, you would have certainly felt him in the force if he was there, but the resemblance was uncanny.“Master Yoda...?” your voice betrayed you. The child did nothing but dump his hand into a bag of dried rations, which were much closer to the floor than the former was, and munched away as if he had never eaten any food before in his life. The tears began to flow from your eyes down the soft planes of your cheeks. Yoda. It took only a few moments before you felt the walls you had built up so high in the foreground of your mind begin to crumble. The force let itself in as if it had only been away from home for a few minutes. You wiped the mess of tears away from your field of vision and tucked the blaster away in your waistband. The kid wasn’t Yoda. It wasn’t some prophesized Jedi fantasy coming to haunt you even now that everyone was dead and gone. You live, and you learn.
Per aspera ad astra
“What’s your name, kid?” You crouched down to his level (or as close as you could get) and reached to slow down his rapid eating. He responded only in garbled baby talk, and while you sighed, you knew there was nothing much you could do about it. You swiftly lifted him with you and set him down on the table. The way his eyes seemed to peer into your own (still dripping with tears) drove you into a fit of squirms and uncomfortable chills. It was like he was reading your soul while drooling on himself. Certainly a far cry (though not as much as you would have expected ) from the old master. There was an aura of life that surrounded the child, green and vibrant. It was the type of force that Yoda carried with him, though you weren’t sure if it was because of the shared species or the possibility of something more. “You’re one freaky little guy.” You raised a hand to pinch at his cheek and were met with the buzz of a warning at the back of your head. The force—it was telling you to—You reached for the child, hugging him close to your chest, and in one movement held your blaster up to the doorway. A man, no, a Mandalorian stood in full beskar regalia holding a pulse rifle aimed at your head. “Put the child down,” he spoke through what sounded like a modulator. It was grainy and only seemed to emphasize his elusiveness. You hadn’t heard him move at all, and had it not been for your old friend at the back of your head, you would never have known he was there. He walked silently, aimed silently, and probably killed just as quietly too. You cringed at the sight of his helmet, it reminded you so much of—“Put him down.” This was a demand. “He’s yours? One of of your little bounties?” Yeah, you figured he presented himself like a certain Jango Fett amongst his many clones. The Mandalorian tilted his head at the sight of you cradling the child close to you, protecting him with your body and your blaster. He couldn’t understand it, but he could appreciate the gesture nonetheless. If your first instinct was to protect and not attack or even sell the child, then it must have been a happy coincidence that he ended up here. Still, he couldn’t take the risk. “No,” he lowered his rifle and motioned for you to do the same. “But he is with me.” “Well,” you looked down at the child as he still held a handful of rations in his fist, tightly clenched as if it would run away from him. “You seem to be doing an amazing job at taking care of him.” If you counted leaving him unsupervised long enough for him to wander into a stranger's house and eat their food great parenting then the Mandalorian must be a god amongst men. You imagined the Mandalorian was glaring at you now for questioning his superb parenting skills and before either of you could make a move, the rousing sound of footsteps and grainy commands could be heard from outside of your hut. You raised your blaster once more before elbowing your way past the Mandalorian and gazing past your door. It was a group of those bucket-headed single-shot troopers gearing closer and closer to your mostly hidden hut. “Imps,” you seethed. “You led a gang of those kriffing Empire worshippers to my doorstep!” Not bothering to entertain the idea of being raided and searched for whatever the hell was happening here, you gathered the child up in your arms and pointed a finger at the beskar-wearing idiot in the corner. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”“Not my problem,” he reached for the child. “Aht!” You pulled away from him. “You’re getting me the hell out of here. I can’t get found out by those guys and if I go down I’m taking you with me.” He didn’t seem to like that idea as he raised his rifle to you again. You rolled your eyes, phase-pulse be damned, he would be giving you a one-way ticket off this planet if he didn’t wanna feel the steel-toed end of your foot shoved up his beskar“Move,” he spoke authoritatively. It seemed he would be helping you after all. You motioned for him to follow you down to the cellar. The trap door would buy you some time, it always had. You paused for a moment before making the split-second decision to reach for a bag you didn’t think you would ever need to pack, much less run off with. It held your past, your present, and hopefully not your future. Your robes and cloak, a datapad, and an old scroll you were sure wouldn't have survived this long if you didn't lug it around with you. The items sat amongst a balled-up mass of rations and clothes.The Mandalorian didn’t seem phased by your quick departure, only pushing forward through a shoddy tunnel you had dug out in the last three years you had been living there. Obi-Wan was smart enough to make a secret cellar, but he didn’t have the foresight to give himself a secret exit. “To the left,” you instructed while keeping the child tucked tightly to you. The Mandalorian seemed to hate this as he peered down at the child, comfortably settled where he felt safe. You could feel his indignation through the damn helmet. Maybe the force was being kind enough to tell you how displeased he was with this situation. ‘Someone’s jealous their kid found someone else to cuddle up with’ You couldn't let go of him even if you wanted to you think. He reminded you too much of your past, even beyond that of Master Yoda, and while it unnerved you it also gave you the strength to continue down the sandy paths of the cellar. A ladder became visible in the distance. “Up, and keep your head down. Too damn shiny in the sun.” He seemed like a man of little words, at least by your standards. Most people you aligned yourself with never seemed to shut up. ‘Oooohhh, why would I remind myself of something like that?’ You were behind an old shop now, the keeper nice enough to let you use his trashcan as a hidey hole for your exit. Well, you were sure he would be nice about it if you had bothered to ask. “Really? Couldn’t find anything less vile to hide in?” “Don’t start talking on my behalf.” You raised a brow at him. Guess the guy could be a little normal after all. Who knew that Mandalorians had standards for secret tunnel exits?He ran faster than you would have thought in all that steel, but years of training had hardened your body enough to keep up with the bounty hunter even on the softest sands of Tatooine.A ship revealed itself in the distance, old and... well just old. “A pre-empire ST-70? How do you even get that thing in the air?” “Just get in.” With no room to argue, you skirted your way up the ramp and cooed at the child, reassuring him that he was... home? Was this his home? You think that it could barely be considered a ship much less a home. The interior was cold, the same type of cold that reminded you of all those years lost on Denarii. Maybe it was the steel walls and grated floor. At least you hoped it was. You rushed to follow after the Mandalorian up the latter and into the cockpit. Beside the piloting seat was a hover pram and as you felt the engine powering up under your feat you rushed to put the child in. The Mandalorian motioned for you to take the copilot seat behind him before pulling the gunship off of the sandy dunes that you’ve learned to call home and into the sky. Tatooine would be lost to you now. All that work getting Obi-wan’s home back in living conditions, learning to become one with the earth you slept on, all of the short life you’ve lived there was over. You couldn’t bring yourself to look at the Mandalorian, to send him any harsh words over his sudden invasion into your home. You were much too busy watching the imps and the planet fade as you reached space. “Why were you on Tatooine? Why were you in my home ?” Your gaze rested on the Mandalorian. He didn’t react or even bother to respond to your question. “Hello? Mandalorian?” You raised your hand your snap in his face. Swiftly, he caught your wrist and forcefully shoved it away from him. “Because of the kid,” his helmet jerked to the side and you imagined a pointed look was painted on his face. “Deactivated the autopilot while I was in the fresher. We landed and by the time I noticed he was gone he was probably halfway to your hut.” You unbuckled yourself in one swift move and turned to peer at the child. Something was definitely off, you felt it now. But when you reached out to touch it with the force it was like a wall was in your way, blocking you from truly seeing him. The force had never acted this way. You had always been told that you were in tune with the finer workings of life because you were from Denarii, it’s why you and Anakin had been so drawn to each other from the start. He was born of the force, and you embodied its most natural parts. So why, now of all times, was it blocking you from the child? “Hey,” the Mandalorian grasped at your elbow as you inched closer to the pram. You shook yourself from these thoughts, the force was something you’ve learned not to question, to let it guide you even after all these years away from the order. But still, this barrier around the child alluded you more than you liked to admit. “Where are we going?” You asked the armor-clad man. He paused for a moment, releasing his tight grip on your arm and turning to the control panel. When he pulled up a holomap, you groaned, he had no clue. “Stop complaining,” he chastised. “I have every right to complain,” you sunk into your seat once more. “You break into my house, eat my rations, and bring the imps along with you. And now I’m stuck here with a thing I don’t even wanna look at and a toddler.” He turned his head a bit to stare at you before looking back at the holomap. “Unless you know any out-of-the-way planets with no traces of the Empire then sit down and shut up. I could always cuff you and freeze you.”You tensed at his threat. “You have a carbonite chamber on board?” The way his hands stopped fiddling with the holomap warned you that he could feel the sudden stress of your words. “Yes.” That was all you needed for your back to begin shuddering and for your bones to begin to ache. Your mind flashed back to the gilded hall of warriors, frozen in carbonite for an eternity, and how you clawed your way out of that room. You remember running from them and you remember killing them. “There,” you pointed at the map somewhere between Mandalore and Mon Calamari. “Sorgan is damn near desolate and deep in the outer rim. I’ve been there once and it was just forest and swamp.”
Per aspera ad astra
He queued up an info panel and turned to the child. “No starport, no industrial centers, no population density. Real backwater skug hole. Which means it's perfect for us. You ready to lay low and stretch your legs you little womp rat?” “Nobody’ll find us there,” you added. “Maybe I can build another hut. And you—Mandalorian—are not invited to stay with us.” “I wouldn’t have stayed anyway.” “You got jokes now?” You asked incredulously. “This’ll be your last stop with us,” he affirmed. “And it’s Mando. If you want to keep being annoying at least do it right.”
“Does he always do that?” The child kept fiddling with the controls, pressing buttons that you were sure were doing something in the background of the ship. “Stop touching things,” Mando spat as he lifted the child onto his lap. The journey was at its end as you sped along the treetops of Sorgan, touching down gently in the only dry clearing between all of its green lush. “Listen.” He reached over to hand the child to you. “I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna look around. Shouldn’t take too long.” He looked at you, unnerving you to no end with that damn helmet of his. “Don’t leave. If you leave I’ll do more than just put you into that carbonite.” Damn him for using the one thing you deeply hated against you. ‘I guess he’s a bounty hunter through and through’ He paused before looking down at the child in your hold. “Don’t touch anything.” “I’ll find us some lodging for the night and then come back for the both of you.” He turned to you once more. “One night, that's all I’m giving you before you're on your own. Consider this payment for the imps.” “How kind,” you spoke blandly. One night of lodging for an entire house full of personal belongings gone and probably raided, seems like a very equal exchange to you. The child cooed at you as Mando turned to leave, struggling to escape from your hold. Like a stream of pressure building up and shooting through the back of your skull, a thought came to mind. “Hey Mando,” you called, getting up from your seat and following the armor-clad man. “I think he’s hungry.” You let him roam on his own now, finding that while Mando had not turned to look at you, as he opened the hatch, the child stood beside him. You snorted, the difference between man and creature was so incredibly great. How Mando came into contact with this child was beyond you but it was funny nonetheless. “Oh, what the hell. Come on then.” You followed behind, not wanting to sit in the cold interior of the god-awful ship that he rode around in. Little time had passed before the suffocating silence was broken. “So,” you drew out. “Why the cape?” Mando tilted his head at you, doing a little double-take in what you considered disbelief. Did he not realize it was a cape?“It’s a cloak.” “No, I’m pretty sure that’s a cape.” “And I’m one hundred percent sure it’s a cloak. It’s mine.” “I can see that it’s yours,” you raised your brows and gave him a once-over. The cape (because yes, it was a cape) was tattered beyond belief and contrasted his shiny exterior. Like day and night, his cape went against everything you would have believed to be useful in a fight. “But it’s definitely a cape. Look, it even flows like one. A cloak goes over your shoulders.” “Do you stop talking?” “I barely started!” “Then go back to before that.” Mando’s gruff exterior mimicked whatever was on the inside you supposed. It was hard trying to keep conversation with a man who seemed to not only hate your guts, even though he was the one who ruined your home but also seemed to hate the way his child clung to you. Even now, the little guy hung off your neck because he couldn’t keep a decent pace with Mando. Poor thing took leaps and bounds just to make up for one step of someone of his stature. “So what’s our plan anyway?” “Our plan,” he turned to you and pointed to the bundle in your arms. “Is to lay low and keep the imps off our tale for a few months. Maybe even find him somewhere to settle down. I don’t know what you're gonna do and I don’t want to know.”Your face visibly hardened at that. “It’s not my fault that you're being chased by a bunch of low-brow, B-rate villains. Don’t get mad at me for asking a simple question. You dragged me here so you keep me in the know.” “You don’t need to know anything.” He turned away for a moment before pausing and swiping the child from your arms. “And you shouldn’t be holding him either.” You balked at the man. Just a while ago he was fully prepared to leave the kid on the ship in your care, what changed so suddenly that he wouldn’t even let you hold him in his presence? It seemed the child noticed this change as well, whining and forcing his way from Mando’s chest to his shoulder, reaching out to be closer to you. You could hear the deep sigh from his voice modulator as the both of you trekked onwards all while the child continued his huffing and struggling against Mando’s shoulder. After what felt like a lifetime of awkward silence (save for the adorable sounds of the child) an indistinct chatter could be heard from a distance. Then the smell of food hit the three of you like a speeder. Meat and marinades blended in the air with the fresh aromatics of broth wafted from its epicenter, a common house. “You hungry youngling?” You winced at your slip. The image of you training all those children back in the temple came to mind. It was an honor bestowed upon you by Yoda and Windu themselves, though you were sure they thought it was some sort of self-punishment ritual. In your ministrations, you failed to notice the way that the child seemed to light up at the mention of food, wiggling and moving so much that Mando was forced to place him down and allow him to walk on his own. As the three of you walked in, the atmosphere was immediately warm and inviting, nothing like the old cantina on Tatooine. No, this place seemed to welcome you as travelers, nothing more or less. Still, stuck in your old militant ways, you surveyed the area, though you were sure Mando was doing the same, and found nothing but a very strong-looking woman casting her gaze in the direction of your group. She seemed fine, not menacing by force standards, and nothing warned you of her presence. For now, she became an afterthought. You ordered a porringer of bone broth for the child, on Mando’s coin, of course, and before the women could turn away from your table the man began his interrogation. “That one over there,” he nodded towards the woman from earlier. “When did she arrive?” He had noticed it too, her lingering looks and oddly stiff behavior, even for someone who was relaxing. Still, the force told you nothing about her that could have indicated that sort of response from him. You closed your eyes to concentrate for a moment, reminding yourself that not everyone around you was as attuned to the force as you were. And unless this Mando was the second coming of Tarre Vizsla then you would really have to check yourself. He dropped a handful of credits on the table. “Well, at least we get free—where are you going?” He got up and rushed out of the commonplace as soon as the woman had left, leaving you, once again, with the child. “I sense a disturbance, and I don’t need the force to know that.” You went to follow after him but were instead stared down. “Keep an eye on the kid,” Mando said as he tossed a credit your way, smacking you in the center of your forehead.Who the hell does this guy think you are? He’s a walking contradiction! First, he tells you to stay with the kid, then he gets mad at you and says he should have never said it, and then he tells you to watch the kid again. He may as well have been walking around carrying a sign that says ‘Take my kid! I leave him anywhere and with anybody!’“Honestly,” the barmaid placed the spotchka in front of you and the broth in front of the kid. “Can’t get a read on this guy at all.” From the uneven wood paneling on the side of the building (though you could hardly call it that) you could see the fight brewing between the Mandalorian and the woman. With a gentle squeeze of your eyes, you pressed your hands to your temples and recited the teachings of Windu and the very first line of the Jedi code.‘There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion, there is peace. ’
Per aspera ad astra
When you heard the sound of flames, you figured now would be as good a time as any to check in on the two. “Let’s go check on your... dad?” The child cooed at your confusion but stepped off of the stool with his broth held tightly between both of his clawed hands. By the time the two of you made it outside both of them had their blasters aimed at the other, seemingly perfectly matched in combat. The back and forth honestly impressed you, even for someone who has lived the life you’ve had, and while the child stood next to you diligently sipping at his drink, your hip stayed cocked and your eyes half-lidded in amusement. “Should we leave?” You jerked your thumb over your shoulder. Yeah, you were definitely judging them. You could see Mabdo rolling his head over his shoulders, maybe from the stress of your sudden intrusion or something else you couldn't quite decode. “You two want some soup?” Yeah, you could go for some soup.
“We were peacekeepers. Protecting delegated suppressing riots. Not what I signed up for.” You wish that could be you, truly, honestly. In some ways, you envied Cara for her ability to walk away from something she didn’t want. Had you done that, you probably would have never had to go through what you did. “Nice retirement though, the spotchka’s fresh,” you nodded to the cup resting between both her hands. “And this planet doesn’t seem too bad to settle down on.”“What are you doing traveling with this guy then, you don’t seem like guild?” She leaned closer to you now, interested in a way that made you nervous. “Long string of unfortunate events. This is my last drop-off with him so long as he can get me some lodging. I don’t know if you can tell,” you motioned towards Mando. “But he doesn’t like me very much.” “Can’t see why, you’re built like you could fight. I thought all Mandalorians could appreciate that,” she sunk back in her seat with a smirk tossed between you and Mando. You supposed she had a point. Your whole life you’ve been training your body and mind, lately now more than ever, and you had that head held high, structured posture that most people with experience had. She had it, Mando had it, and in the back of your mind, you could recall a select few people from your past who had it too. Still, she had no clue how rigid your posture could truly get or how hardened your skin had become. “Well this has been a real treat,” she broke the sudden pause in conversation as she got up from her seat. “But unless you wanna go another round one of us is gonna have to move on and I was here first.” With that, she turned to leave.“Well,” Mando looked at the child. “Looks like this planet’s taken.” Mando turned to look at you. “We’ll be leaving you here then, figured someone in this place knows where to put you,” he looked down for a moment. “For what it’s worth I’m sorry about the imps. It was rude of me to act like that. I would have been far worse if I was on the other end.” You nodded. Content. Yet, at his move to leave the force suddenly jerked at the back of your mind. Maker, it had been so loud lately. Or maybe that was the child’s sudden crying. Sure, you had been around kids, but those kids weren’t exactly normal or emotional in any capacity. The most emotional kid you knew was the guy you ended up secretly dating and that didn’t exactly end well. So, while you sit here watching the child throw a tantrum that seemed completely out of character Mando did damage control. “Wha—hey kid, calm down,” he went to hold the child but was shoved away with as much force as a small thing like him could muster up. That's when his hands reached for you. “Awe, little guy, you gotta go with Mando,” you attempted to ease his cries. This seemed to only make them worse. Words failed you and the man in armor, and as you attempted to calm him with the force the barrier around him only seemed to thicken. His earlier coos were now raging cries with fat tears falling from his face, his ears dropping ever so slightly. People around you began to stare and as much as Mando attempted to coax him away from you, the child refused to let you leave his sight. “Dank farrik,” Mando cursed. He stood there holding the child as he wailed and flung his body from side to side, attempting to reach you before sighing so deeply you think he could feel the vibrations of his own helmet. “Come with us,” he said without looking at you like the words hurt coming from his own mouth. You cringed. “Are you sure? I don’t think he’ll cry for more than an hour. Kids tire themselves out—” He shook his head and motioned for you to follow behind them. At the sight of you coming with them, the child stopped his crying and instead giggled and cooed once more. “You sneaky little womp rat,” Mando said.“Guess he can’t get enough of me,” you brushed a hand over the little fuzz that grew from his head. Despite the kid’s sweet nature, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. You were being blocked from using the force on him, like some sort of divine intervention, literally. You just hoped this little clingy feeling he had with you would leave fast.
Din doesn’t think he’s very suited for this whole ‘taking care of kids thing’ but damn, was he sure as hell trying his best. He was gone for one minute, one minute, maybe even less, and somehow the kid had managed to crash land the Crest on Tatooine of all places. The searing heat of two suns did nothing to help him look for the suddenly lost child. He didn’t even realize that he had the capability of opening up the hatch to get out. He couldn’t even reach it! But when he saw that random hut in the middle of nowhere, so blatantly hidden from the rest of the world, he had a bad feeling. Had someone taken the child in his sudden need to explore? Did he wander into an abandoned house full of raiders and jawas? A million possibilities flashed through his mind but he never did land on the reality of the situation. A woman, marginally younger than himself, stood cooing and crying (?) at the child. She didn’t look like a kidnapper, but for some reason, she also didn’t match the distinct ‘Tatooineness’ that the other locals had. She wore a long white tunic that hit around mid-thigh with some worn pants that Din could tell had seen better days. Her boots were sandy, so much so that it made him uncomfortable to think about how she could feel the individual crunches beneath her feet. Oddly enough, the most alarming part of her attire hadn’t been her cinched belt or even the extra layers she wore wrapped under and over her tunic, it was the long, dingy cloak she had wrapped around herself. It left her front open, but her sides semi-exposed to the world. Everything else was thoroughly covered. She didn’t look like any native he had ever seen on the planet, and the way she hadn’t run from or cashed in the child yet was all the proof he needed of that. He still had a bad feeling, one that gnawed at his gloved hands, begging him to pull out his pulse rifle and end the interaction altogether. Then, something else came over him, a steady calm that washed his fears for the child and his skepticism about the woman away. But, he was a Mandalorian. So when he had his rifle steadily trained to her head, he hadn’t expected anything to come from besides an unfortunate casualty. He certainly hadn’t expected to be faced with a blaster, especially not one that was seemingly trained on the empty space where his beskar could not physically meet together. It wasn’t a lethal shot but it was trained, honed, and thought made him angry and more uncomfortable than he would like to admit. So, yes he did fully intend to kill her for her proximity with the small green bundle in her arms, but something seemed to click at the back of his mind, reaching out and begging him to pull his finger away from the trigger and give the woman a moment to explain herself. Then the imps came and everything went to shit. If Din could go back in time and change anything about the interaction he would one, hold off from going for the fresher for as long as he possibly could because he was sure this wouldn’t have happened if he did, and two, kill the lady. Now he stood here on Sorgan, readying himself to leave and tinkering with the inner workings of his ship, you standing off to the side feeding the kid some rations and coaxing him into uncurling his iron-tight fist from your tunic. The kid would be the death of him. Why he wanted you around so bad was a mystery and one he would rather leave behind than solve. You could not and would not be traveling with them and that was final. He could see you now, the heat of your body shining warm reds and oranges through his visor. You looked normal all things considered. You had this energy around you that seemed to keep the kid at peace. Maybe this was why he had intentionally landed the Crest near your home. He thought that maybe he must have known you from the fifty-something prior years he had been alive but you didn't look to be that old, maybe in your mid-twenties, and the thought of a small you running around with an even smaller little green…thing, well, it was comical at best. “Excuse me,” the voice of a random man put a halt to his silent musings. “Excuse me, sir?” “There something I can help you with?” It was less of a question and more of a domineering way of telling these men to leave him alone. From the corner of his eye, Din could see you pulling the child from your lap and wrapping him in your cloak, shielding him from the two strangers before you. Your hand seemed to move instinctively to your side, twitching at something near your belt. Strange, he didn’t see you carrying anything but the blaster you almost shot him with but that was tucked somewhere among the minimal belongings you ran off with. “Raiders,” one spoke. “We have money,” the other added. “So you think I’m some kind of mercenary.” “You are a Mandalorian, right? Or at least wearing Mandalorian armor. That is Mandalorian armor, right?”“It is.” “What exactly do you two need help with?” You had appeared from beside the ship, scaring the two men into small, pitiful shrieks. They must have not seen you.“Our whole harvest was stolen we need—” “We have money!” “How much?” He questioned. Din could see you sending him a judgmental look. Something akin to disappointment and ire. “It’s everything we have,” he held a hand out to the both of you, displaying a measly amount of earnings. “Krill. We’re krill farmers.”“We brew spotchka. Our whole village chipped in.”“It’s not enough.” “What my friend means to say,” you interrupted, stopping Din from walking away. “Is that we’re in a tight spot. Where do the two of you live?” They stared at each other before looking back at you with hope in their eyes, something you seemed to enjoy by the way Diin could spot a kind smile etching itself onto your face. “Middle of nowhere, on a farm. Weren’t you listening? We’re farmers.” “Middle of nowhere?” You asked before turning to Din. He understood what you meant. A place to lay low, somewhere where the child could spread his legs. “You have lodging?” Din’s voice broke through the silence. “Yes!” The man and his friend seemed excited now. “Good. Come up and help.” Din turned to you, thinking back on the trusting bond between you and the child. If he felt comfortable enough to seek you out, he would have to feel comfortable enough to be alone with you even for a short bit.“I’ll be back,” he turned to the two men once more. “And I’ll need those credits.”
Per aspera ad astra