Chapter Text
9 ABY
Grogu was safe. That thought ran on repeat through Din’s foggy mind. His ad’ika was safe and in his arms. Gideon was defeated, not dead but that was the easy way out for this hut’tunn and he had promised to let Bo-Katan have a go at the Moff anyway.
As they shuffled down the hallway to the bridge, Din felt every one of the punches he had taken from the Dark Trooper. Not to mention the fight with Gideon. And the world around him felt a bit suffocating as they stepped off the lift into the corridor. Holding himself tightly he made sure that Gideon stayed in front of him, the Darksaber a loud buzz that nearly rattled his teeth as it hung at his side.
He couldn’t remember when he’d last slept or eaten, but that wasn’t anything new to him. Honestly it was worth it just to hold his ad once more and know they were safe. He would do anything to keep this child, his ad’ika, safe. This is the Way.
The small coo of happiness from below his shoulder had Din looking down to see his ad’ika smiling up at him. Little happy teeth flashing at him as Grogu flapped his ears, but Din could see the exhaustion and stress that weighed on the child. It caused a hot pulse of rage to burn through the heavy fog that tried to pull at his own mind.
He should see if there was a med bay on this ship before he left, he thought as they continued down the hall toward the bridge. The feeling of drying sweat stung against the open wound at the back of his head. That Trooper seriously knocked him around, a small voice whispered in the back of his mind. Later, told himself. They could deal with that later.
The important thing to focus on was his ad’ika was back in his arms. Safe. And they were going to get as far away from here, fast as they could. Because this fight had made him realize more than anything that he truly didn’t want to let go of Grogu. The child was his ad and he had fought that title and idea long enough.
The truth was clear and simple to Din, he didn’t want to let his ad’ika go. Grogu belonged at his side, or more truthfully Din thought, he belonged at his ad’s side. To be their Buir and to raise them. Grogu was his foundling and foundlings were the future. This was the Way.
His mission, this quest, to find the Jedi had led them all to more trouble than it was worth. Once he was finished here, he was taking what bounty there was on Gideon and laying low again. Spend some time with his ad and teach them the Ways of Mandalore if they wanted to learn them.
Obviously finding a Jedi to teach Grogu was pointless. The trip to the Seeing Stone was a disastrous waste and no one had answered. Tano had said ‘might’. Someone ‘might’ answer Grogu’s call, and they ‘might’ teach him. He had felt the heavy weight of those words as a failure, he didn’t want to fail but he didn’t really want to give his ad up either. He wanted to do what was right, what he had been tasked with.
It was all so many conflicting thoughts and feelings; nothing he had really had to deal with most of his life before Grogu. And then, the Imps had shown up and taken his ad, again. He failed his ad again and again and he was tired of it! Din cut his glance to the defeated Moff and had to grit his teeth to keep from running the karking shabuir through with the laser sword in his hand.
So now it was time to rest up and look at their options for the future together. He liked that idea a lot. Thankful for the privacy of his helmet, Din smiles bright and happily as the door to the bridge opened and he pushed Gideon through it and onto the floor.
Din’s thoughts turn hazy and a little heavy as he stands there watching Moff Gideon taunt Bo-Katan over the laser sword. His vision narrows slightly, and time seems to move in time to the blink of his eyes and the sluggish thudding of his heart.
BLINK. Thrusting the cursed laser sword out towards her, “take it. I yield!”
BLINK. Gideon's smarmy face looking up at them.
BLINK. The proximity Alarm blaring across the bridge. Were they under attack?! What now!!??
BLINK. “The ray shields have been breached. We're being boarded.”
“How many life forms,” Bo-Katan barks.
“None,” Fennec looks back over her shoulder, her pale face and dark eyes.
What? Noooo. No more!
BLINK. “You're about to face off with the Dark Troopers. You had your hands full with one, let's see how you do against a platoon.” Gideon smirks
“They're headed this way,” Bo-Katan called out, the panic in her voice clear over the ringing alert.
BLINK. Protect the ad. Din puts the kid down onto the floor out of harm's way and gently pats his head as he promises his ad. “Don't worry kid I’m gonna get you out of here.” Grogu’s ears drop in fear and sadness. Must. Protect. My. Child.
BLINK. “Seal the blast doors,” Fennec orders.
BLINK. “They're here,” Fennec states as the muffled sounds of the Dark Troopers marching feet filtered in through the blast doors. Helmets redonned and the sound of safety removed from triggers fill the air.
BANG.
BANG. “You have an impressive fire team protecting you,” Moff Gideon darkly purrs behind them from the floor.
BANG. “But I think we all know.”
BANG. “After a valiant stand.”
BANG. “Everyone in this room will be dead.”
BANG. “But me.”
BANG. “And the child.”
BANG!
NOOOOOOOOO!
THIS IS NOT THE WAAAAAYYY!
~^~
The distant sounds of metal on metal and the soft hiss and hum of the forge are the first things that Din notices. It reminds him of his childhood as his eyes clear from bright white to a dim hazy fog around him. Blinking rapidly, he looks around him, but nothing is distinct, it is all soft lines and vague shapes, though there is a comforting sense of familiarity to the curves and edges around him.
You wish for somewhere safe, yes? The voice echoes around him the haze but Din sees no one here.
‘Of course,’ he thinks back at the voice. ‘The Child, my child, needs safety and security from the Empire's remnants! I cannot allow these shabuir to keep chasing after us forever! What life is that for him?!’
And what of you Din Djarin? Do you not need safety and security? What sort of life is that for *you* to lead as well?
I am Beroya . I am not made for safety and security. It is my duty to bring that for the Child. This is the Way.
A sense of sadness filled the air around him and then resignation. I believe then perhaps it is time *we* show *you* The Way.
Warmth flooded through Din, and it was quite pleasurable. It was as though he were sinking into a warm pool, the water lapping from his toes up his legs and over his chest melting always the cares and concerns that had dogged him for so long. His awareness of anything but floating gently faded though after some unknown period as the warm sensation began to increase. It began to shift slowly until Din felt as though his skin was on fire; his skin crackling and stretching painfully tight over his body. The thrumming throb of his pulse beat in time to the ever increasing throb of the world around, him sending jarring aches through his muscles and bones. Just as he thought he might tear apart with heat and ache and the throb of his body, the pressure that he hadn't even realized that surrounded him let go and he gasped a deep breath.
Trying to catch his breath, Din felt a cough take him and weakly turned his head trying to clear his throat and chest.
“Shh, rest ad’ika.” A gentle but calloused hand lay on his forehead a moment and before Din could even realize that it had been his bare forehead that the hand had touched, he fell back into the overly warm darkness once again.