Chapter Text
Din was depressed.
Sitting low in his black plastic seat in a low grade, communal transport ship, breathing in the stale mechanically ventilated air from him helmet, surrounded by varying families of different shapes and sizes, all trying to get somewhere, start a new life, have a new adventure, while he was…. Din sighed, trying not to think about it, looking back out into the deep depths of space to clear his mind.
He failed miserably in his endeavour, as his mind always inevitably went back to the kid… to Grogu. All those months of adventure, of trying to find Grogu’s kind, it was such a whirlwind of a time, full of strife and uncertainty, that Din wouldn’t change for the world. In all these months of ‘back to normal’ he still can’t find a way to function without the little guy. It was like his world stopped the moment that the kid ran into the arms of that black-hooded mysterious figure. Din still couldn’t say he made the right decision letting Grogu go to someone he had just met, especially someone so dangerous, the way he had completely crushed those droids…. Din gets chills just thinking about it.
He had felt in his gut that it was the right thing to do, but he never realized what giving away the kid would feel like, like he’d torn off a part of himself and was irreversibly forever changed. He’d do anything to see the kid again, anything, whether that meant doing these small, meaningless side jobs, jumping from outer rim planet to planet forever until he had the credits to buy another ship, and then he’d tear the whole galaxy apart just to find him again, see if he’s okay. But until then it was the small meaningless side jobs and the monotony of public transportation, in the same dreary cycle, again and again. Din was depressed.
“You have arrived at your destination.” Din’s monotonous thoughts were interrupted by a clear, mechanical voice. He sighed again and got ready to disembark on his ‘favourite’ planet by this point, with how often he seemed to frequent it; Tattooine. Gathering all his equipment and arsenal of weapons from the security droid with a suspicious glare, double-triple checking that nothing was missing… vibroblade good, blaster check, darksaber… He tried not to think to hard about that one… Everything was there, and he was good to go. He’d been planning a trip back to Tattooine for some time, as going missions for Boba Fett and chatting with Peli Motto seem to be the only bright spots in his otherwise dreary schedule. He smiled thinking about all of Boba Fett’s quick quips and sense of humour that matched so well with his own, he was a weapon that guy.
Stepping down off of the loading ramp he was immediately assaulted by the glare and heat of Tattooine’s two suns. Already feeling a sheen of sweat under his beskar armour, he sighed, his ‘favourite’ planet alright. He set off on his current mission; to stay alive and find a ride to Boba Fett’s palace. Weaving his way though Mos Eisley’s desirables he set about to find a vendor who would be willing to give him a deal on a speeder that wouldn’t cost him an arm and a leg.
As he turned the corner to the main market square, he almost immediately got a tingling feeling on the back of his neck like he was being watched, a sharp, antsy feeling that derailed his entire train of thought, putting his focus back on the present moment. Realizing how exposed he was in the open market, Din immediately locked onto a dark, back alleyway and started walking swiftly towards it, dogging the vendors that came up to him trying to sell him their wares of various kinds. Behind him he could see a group of people following him; they looked like a group of undesirables he’d crossed paths with a few times in his work bounty hunting in the past, seemed like they were trying to entrap him. His mind immediately started racing as for the main two possible reasons why, with one being of much greater concern to him then the other.
Slipping quickly into the alleyway, he immediately got the jump on the first guy with his wire, holding him tightly around the neck. “What do you want?” Din growled, giving just enough wire for the guy to speak. Hacking a cough the guy started laughing with an ominous “oh you’ll see soon enough.” Loosing his patience Din knocked the guy out cold before being immediately assaulted by his compatriots.
Outnumbered 10 to one and in close combat, Din got his vibroblade out and started slashing at whoever was brave enough to come close to him, luckily it seemed they were trying to take him alive, otherwise he would have been shot at the moment he stepped off the transport ship. They got a few hard knocks in, while Din took a few down with his blade, but it was getting harder and harder to stay awake and focused with his head pounding like he’d been hit by a rancor from what was most likely a concussion from one of their hard hitters. He’d pay them back triple for that.
Just as his vision was starting to fade as he grappled with a large, muscular Twi’lek bounty hunter, he saw a quick movement out of the corner of his eye, and all of the sudden the Twi’lek was thrown right off of him, as if he was hit by an invisible freighter. There were only a few people in the galaxy who Din knew could do that. His hopes climbed to an unreasonable magnitude as he turned his head to look at, what was not Grogu, as he starred into blazing blue eyes that could only belong to one person, The Jedi. Who quickly turned around, making quick work of the first couple bounty hunters; crumpling them as if they were paper.
Though the jedi missed one sneaking up behind him while he was occupied by the majority, which Din quickly dispatched with his blaster, breathing heavily while he tried to stay awake from his prone position on the ground. He watched the jedi deal with the rest of the bounty hunters, feeling like he was in a surreal moment as his lithe form slashed through target after target. With the bounty hunters dealt with, for now, he could see a pair of concerned blue eyes as the Jedi headed over his way. Feeling faint and with his concession threatening to drag him into oblivion he somehow managed to mutter “Is the kid okay?” to him before passing out cold.