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sinisterexaggerator · 5 months

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Stars Above! | Cad Bane

Chapter 15

Explicit: Semi-slow burn, gratuitous smut /pwp, canon-typical violence, mildly dubious consent, angst, Tatooine Slave Culture.

This chapter: No warnings but for a disgruntled Duros.

Word count: 2.7k+

Notes: This is kind of a short chapter, but it feels right to set it apart on its own from what comes next. In fact, writing shorter chapters may make it so that I update more often, as it's easier to manage, and I still have a LOT of story to tell. <3

[ Ao3 ] - [ Masterpost ]

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Zulara tried her best to not let fear overtake her, for her spiraling thoughts to get the best of her, even as she sat there all alone. Not truly, but it felt as if she had been abandoned, Todo having powered down with Bane still sleeping soundly in the bacta.

Everything was happening much too quickly, though it had been hours since she’d come here; her head was spinning. She hadn’t eaten, having let her meal fall to the ground at Cad Bane’s entrance to her tiny home back on Slave Quarter’s Row the night before.

Zulara realized she didn’t even know the time, not having a chrono of her own. She supposed it did not matter, although Kayson might come looking for her. She wondered if Hondo was able to curb his anger, or to make up some excuse for her, but in her heart she knew nothing would deter her master once he had a mind to do something—find her secret hiding spot.

It was only secret because she was sure he did not know where Bane was docked, or even what his ship looked like. It was the only thing that gave her hope as she gazed longingly at the Duros, wishing he’d wake up.

She regretted leaving Todo just standing there, his form bent forward in a supine slope, but she had been too concerned, too riddled with worry for the hunter, not to go directly back to his side.

She had lost track of how long she had been there, seated on the floor with her legs folded beneath her; her fingers and forehead flat against the glass, Zulara engrossed by Cad Bane’s every breath—she could not help it.

She had almost panicked, having thought to call the youth named Boba Fett, but after the story she had heard, she steeled herself, refusing to bring him back aboard the ship if she could manage it.

Now, it was not Bane who settled into dreams, but the girl beside him. She dreamt of silly things. Things that were nary possible in this life, things that might have made her smile, but she was not so dotty as to put any stock into them.

Imagine her, flying amongst the stars, free from Kayson and from his business, only having to answer to herself. But maybe Bane would be there, maybe he would take care of her, and she would him. Maybe she could join him in his quest across the galaxy, providing him with some relief once he had finished a hard day’s work—how asinine she was to think that. It would never happen.

In reality, space was dark, cold, and unforgiving, she often floundered when she was made to practice piloting. Never before had Zulara felt so claustrophobic, not until she had experienced breaking atmo on Kayson’s orders the first time she left Lothal, no matter that the stars were beautiful.

When she was positive that nothing could go wrong; when she was absolutely sure that Bane was resting comfortably, the girl would climb unsteadily onto her tingling legs and her own two feet—they had nearly been asleep—finally ambling down the corridor to where the little droid resided.

Zulara did her best to move him to his rightful place: the recharge station. No arguments were given, no sassy backtalk had to be endured, yet she found she missed him. The silence of the ship was more than deafening, besides the warbled sound the pod made as it recycled and replenished bacta, as was its purpose, just like he had one—she presumed something, though she had no proof: It was possible in deep space Bane felt too alone, therefore Todo kept his mind sharp, kept him on his game, in addition to keeping the Duros company.

What friends did he have otherwise? Did he have partners that stood by his side? From what Pampy had said to her, he seemed to work all by his lonesome, with a reputation that preceded him.

Perhaps he liked it that way; perhaps she was intruding, yet he had seemed intrigued by her. She worried every second of every minute of every hour what Bane might do should he find her here once he awoke; she prayed to the Goddess of the Twi’lek people that he might find solace with her and not try to kick her out, or worse.

She felt the click, heard the sound that denoted Todo was plugged in. It echoed loudly in the quiet, bouncing from wall to wall. She glanced about her. There were so many things for her eyes to see and study.

There was a lengthy worktable. It was littered with motors, servos, gears, and wires of all sizes. Some parts looked salvaged, while others might be newly purchased, not to mention microchips of unknown origin and lenses, sensors, other various tools and instruments.

She saw a pair of RW-80 welding goggles, along with a protective visor. There were advanced repair kits of all kinds, including those for blasters. Most curious of all was what she thought were trinkets, things that he might collect. There were different kinds of helmets, and what appeared to be weapons of some sort that were unfamiliar. Cabinets lined the walls; she wondered what they might hold. She dare not snoop too much for fear of repercussion.

Still, that would not stop her. She gathered all the bits and pieces of Bane’s wrist gauntlet from off the ground, double-checking to make sure the hunter was still dozing.

Once seated, Zulara would pick up a nearby broken-screw remover, also known as an extractor. This one had a spiral flute structure, which she used to carefully unwind one that was being difficult. Her hands were delicate, though exacting. They had to be for one thing, yet without a measured touch it was possible to add too much torque to the brittle metal, thus making your job that much harder for you.

She removed its outer shell; it was cracked and badly damaged. There was extra paneling meant for droids nearby that could be welded and reshaped, but first thing’s first—she would need to replace the ruined circuits and find a pair of hypersheers for precision cutting and resizing.

---

Lavender eyelids batted open; Zulara found herself in slight repose, her own palm cupping her soft cheek as she had tried to keep her focus. It was at that moment she remembered—she had been cooking rycrit stew! With no sense of time inside Bane’s ship, she hoped it had not become inedible.

She spared a glance, Todo had still not activated. She could not have been asleep for too long, as it only took droids an hour to recharge, or so she’d heard—much less time than her.

Zulara suddenly felt like she could sleep forever, or at least for several hours, but she would not let herself succumb to such a notion. At least not until poor Todo could take over, then maybe she might get some rest before finishing the final touches on Bane’s vambrace.

It had been complicated, finding what wires led to what. She had a scare or two, and nearly burnt her fingers. It was fascinating just how it all operated—she wondered if Bane had built it all himself.

The girl was tempted to check on Bane again, but she did not want to accidentally cause a mess in his little galley, sparsely stocked though nearly spotless, and housed somewhere near the ion engines or another source of power; there was a low humming sound that seemed to burr the whole time she was in there.

Her feet found the rungs to the ladder she would use to climb down into the belly of his ship. His living area, the medbay, his workspace, and the cockpit—they all resided at the top, though separated by double-doors and one almost star-shaped hallway. It led off into four other separate, shallow paths—dead-ending at different doorways, whereas the kitchen and dining area, what looked like holding cells, and ample storage space were down below—so was the boarding ramp and holoterminal with access to the HoloNet.

She was sure that medbay used to be someone else’s living sleeping place, the way furniture was covered and piled up in the corner as if those items had been an afterthought. There was a spare refresher there, besides the one she was sure existed in Bane’s bedroom.

In addition to all the other nooks and crannies, there was the lift they’d use to carry him. It was industrial, flat, and open on all sides, like the ship’s sole was simply rising. It had been designed to act as both roof and floor between two levels; if you were on the lower deck, you had to wait for it to join you.

Zulara imagined it was useful for heavy items, like the pod Bane was currently occupying. She set her thoughts aside, focusing now on the smell that was emanating from down the hall—it was good, thank goodness, and did not smell like anything but vegetables and rycrit stew, like it was supposed to.

The girl would take a breath as she ran her fingers along the counter—it was made from stainless durasteel. She gathered the lid from off her home-cooked meal, inhaling deeply of the aroma that had been building up within. She ladled a bit of broth in the convex shape of the spoon she’d used to cook, then took a taste to make sure it was perfect.

---

Two wide, yellow eyes—like sparkling jaspers—whirred and vibrated with a light buzzing sound. Servos and joints were manipulated, little arms stretched out for a brief inspection, Todo 360 making sure that his intermotors were all functional and accounted for.

He shook his head, as if clearing unwanted thoughts or a fog that lingered, the faithful droid not quite able to remember what had happened to him. He blinked, his metal body tensing—Mister Bane—he was still inside the tank!

Todo would swivel his large cranium to the left and right; that girl Zulara was nowhere to be found. He wondered if she had gone. Had he made it to his recharge station? Perhaps she had it in her heart to help him, as the last thing he could recall was himself stalling, and only a few meters away from his destination—he was sure he had heard her call his name—if his memory still served him, she had sounded beside herself.

The service-droid stepped away from the mechanism holding him upright—he was now fully operational and at full power. He actuated his rocket thrusters and propelled himself into the center of the hall; he took to its right side, branching off, then opened up the steel-plated door to peek inside.

“Mister Bane!” the droid cried happily.

Todo realized he had nearly scared the Duros, his sharp eyes widening in breadth. He had halted with one leg in and one leg out, leaving his imprisonment, whether he should or shouldn’t. Todo knew Bane detested bacta—its texture, temperature, and consistency were all things that displeased him. He had argued with him more than once, the droid sometimes wondering just what he would do without him should he not be there to convince him otherwise.

“Your health is not a game!” is what the droid had told him, sounding as if he truly cared, though he was composed of nothing more than ones and zeros. In reality, Bane was thankful for him; he was like the nagging mother he never had, sure that without that droid, he would already be dead.

Still, that did not mean he was ready to entertain his fraught concern. His tone was lacquered with it, and the hunter would not have it.

“Bane! You are awake! I was—”

The Duros shot his droid companion with a look that dared him to keep yapping, Todo at once halting his chipper dialogue. What Bane was truly feeling was easy to decipher, as it was always written on his face, and rarely pleasant.

“Sir, I can tell your mood is poor, however there is—”

“Quiet!” was the only thing his master demanded of him, Bane’s voice gruff and raspy as he was thirsty on top of feeling completely useless. It felt as if he had been hit with an errant hovercar, or an entire starship, his body aching in places he did not know could ache.

Todo made a sound equivalent to indignation, yet he held his tongue, even though he did not have one. Bane’s other foot joined its partner on the ground, the Duros idling, lingering, just standing there for what felt like minutes, trying to regain his equilibrium.

Once capable of movement, Bane would begin his lethargic trudge toward his refresher in his private quarters, thinking the only thing he cared about was a warm, inviting shower; the feeling of the sticky bacta on his microscales was anathema and suffocating.

The hunter would hardly notice the wet, viscid trail he left behind in his ship’s short corridor, or that the droid had followed him, desperate to talk to him about something he imagined would be unimportant. His head ached, and his mind was numb, no thoughts present except those about the pain he was experiencing. He would take something—drink something—deadening those things he felt both from without and from within, not knowing that the girl being aboard his ship was anything but another dream.

---

“Oh, what am I going to do with him? He never listens! And now I suppose I am going to have to be the one to clean up this mess. I am a techno-service droid, not a maid-droid! Not even a thank you for—”

Todo paused in his lonely rant, tilting his head off to one side. His focus remained trained on the little sound he thought he heard—the clank of boots, or footsteps on the nearby ladder’s metal rungs. It was positioned just left of the cockpit’s doors, Todo surprised when he saw a head emerge, covered in dark locks.

“Zulara!” he called to her, coming forward as she pulled herself up, and out, “I thought you had wisely decided to go home,” he started in. “You will be happy to know that Mister Bane is alive and well, and is currently taking a much-needed shower.”

Zulara’s eyes widened with every word; she tiptoed forward, deciding to check on things herself as Todo kept the conversation going, though she nearly slipped in a residue that happened to be foot-shaped. “I am not sure that I can explain your presence here, therefore it may be in your best interest to leave—now—before either one of us gets into serious trouble.”

It was not that she didn’t trust poor Todo, but she had to see with her own two dichromatic eyes; she peered toward the bacta pod. It was open, and Bane was not inside.

The girl would turn, gazing at the floor and at the tacky substance that had left a path to the door across from her; it was obvious that Bane had made his way just as the droid had said. She began to follow it, Todo placing his hands upon his hips as his spheroid eyes broadened and expanded.

“—And just where do you think you are going?” he asked, perplexed.

“To check on Bane,” the girl would offer as a whisper, her footsteps timid; she moved closer to what was sure to be his bedroom. Her heart was pounding, and her internal temperature was rising, all from simply knowing he was somewhere, awake, on the other side.

“That is the worst idea I have ever heard! Do not be foolish!” Zulara would ignore Todo and his warnings, only pausing to hearten her small amount of courage. She could feel him tug her, his little hands having found the backside of her pants, “he will surely kill you!”

“I’ll be all right,” Zulara stated, shooing him away. Like a moth to a flame, she bade herself to go inside.

Todo would balk and scoff, pace back and forth, and wring his hands, but to no avail; none of this would help him. He tried again, “I do not know who you think you are, or what you are doing, but rest assured Bane will—”

The door closed in his face.

“Organics!” Todo would lament, exasperated.

#Cad Bane #Cad Bane x OC #Cad Bane x Original Character #Fanfiction #Star Wars #Original female characters #Twi'lek species #clone wars #bad batch #book of boba fett #Stars Above #Todo 360 #Bounty Hunters #Star Wars smut #multichapter fic #my writing

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galacticwildfire · 1 year

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Star Wars Masterlist 💫

Boba Fett 🔫

Series

Lost (Prequel to Found)

Din Djarin 🩶

Series

Found

Headcanons

NSFW Alphabet

Imagines/One Shots/Prompts

“Let me take care of you”

Koska Reeves 💙

Headcanons

Fluff/NSFW Headcanons

Obi-Wan Kenobi 👨🏻‍🦰

Series

Illicit Affairs

Headcanons

Fluff/NSFW Headcanons

Poe Dameron 🚀

Series

Fire Meet Gasoline

Headcanons

NSFW Alphabet

Star Wars OC Character Boards

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sroop · 1 year

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guided (i)

"This is my puck, so either we both go together, or you stay behind." It's her way of saying: kriff off.

Author's Note: always wondered about the Mandalorian with an apprentice and wanted to write a bit about what I think Din would try to be as a mentor. This is definitely not the most canon accurate and Grogu isn't mentioned

Summary: Bounty hunting is precarious, even more so when it becomes personal. Din is determined not to let his apprentice learn that the hard way.

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Reyza is a good listener. Which was inconvenient because Din was a good listener too, and that meant it was mostly just silence between the two of them.

Normally, Din enjoys the quiet. He's used to nothing but the hum of the engines, the rattling of the carbonite system, or the firm whoosh of atmosphere thrumming against the ship. Even the more talkative quarries he brings on board are quickly silenced. So it's not the quiet that unnerves him, just the fact that it's silent when someone living and breathing and certainly not encased in carbonite is within arm's reach.

Plus, Reyza's silence today seems... cool. Din has been privy to companionable silences before, even from Reyza, herself. Today, she's faraway somewhere, and he's not so sure if it was just as simple as an off day for her. He tips his helmet towards her, watching.

"We don't have to go."

"We do. We should."

Din frowns beneath his armor and glances at the navigation system. Only a few hours before they reach Corellia. From what he's gathered about Reyza, she was either born on Corellia, or spent some harrowing years on it. He's not entirely sure if she was anywhere near their destination, Coronet City, or if she had even seen it before; but he was willing to put down a hard bet that she had, judging from the begrudging determination in her voice. He sighs too quietly for the modulator to pick up.

"Run interference from the ship."

That has her snapping to attention, all the distance and distraction of the last few days crashing in the face of the present. Din can't see her face, but he can imagine she's livid.

"What?" she growls.

"Run interference from the ship. Nonnegotiable."

There's a cold pause as Reyza races to find the right words for the Mandalorian. He was treating her like she was a child, as though she hadn't saved his life on multiple occasions or survived on her own as a full-fledged assassin long before he had ever made himself known to her. And the word nonnegotiable ate at her ego and insecurities in a way she was reluctant to admit, even internally. She could take care of herself. She could take care of this bounty, even alone. Reyza ground her jaw.

"This is my puck, so either we both go together, or you stay behind." It's her way of saying: kriff off.

"I'm not staying behind, you don't have the firepower. I'm not taking you with me until you're honest about what's bothering you about this bounty. It's dangerous to be distracted," Din replies. His voice is level and Reyza resents his composure.

But he's right. She's not childish enough to deny that, and certainly not naive enough to believe that she was above the dangers of human emotion under pressure. She glances at him guiltily, feeling a little juvenile.

Maybe it was a good idea to stay on the ship and let Din handle this one himself. She wasn't exactly rearing to see the city again, or the people in it. But she also hated the idea of standing by on a mission so personal to her. Reyza was left a simple choice: confess, or stand by.

The words feel slow and heavy in her chest, crawling their way up her throat and complaining about it the whole way up. It was like vomiting, but worse.

"I wasn't born on Corellia, I know that's what Karga's file on me says. I was born somewhere else, don't know where, and I was abducted to Corellia when I was really small." She huffs through her nose and shrugs. "I was there until I escaped, and that's all. I went to Nevarro, started working for Karga-" she shrugs again, "- and you know what happens next."

Din mulls over the brief story. It contained the absolute minimum amount of information she could have given, but he knew what it was to want to forget.

"Coronet City?" he asks.

"Yeah."

He recalls briefly why he had taken Reyza on as his apprentice in the first place. It wasn't just Karga complaining that the Nevarro guild would have no reliable hunters once he decided to retire. It was the starburst sigil she wore on a silver chain around her neck.

He'd recognized it immediately as the mark of Polaris. In their heyday, before the Empire, they'd been a deadly force of assassins and spies. A network spanning galaxies, infiltrating and plucking fate strings so expertly that it was unclear where their influence started or ended. But somewhere along the way, their name faded and the work of their assassins dwindled and they became more myth than reality. Almost like the Mandalorians.

Except Din was willing to assume that the Mandalorians valued their foundlings and assets a little more dearly than whatever or whoever it was Reyza went through.

"Polaris?" he asked, a pitch quieter.

"Yeah," she answers, a beat slower.

Reyza's knees go to her face and she spends the rest of the flight curled to her right, away from Din and his pesky questions and unfortunate truths. Reyza wonders what this means. Was her answer acceptable enough for him to deem her not a threat to their mission? Was he waiting for more? Was she still stuck a passenger on her own bounty hunt? Leftover irritation scratches at the back of her neck and she bristles again. Stupid Mandalorian and his stupid, self-righteous moral high ground. She turns to glare at him.

"It's my puck," she declares again, though she's not quite sure to what end.

Din chuckles under his helmet. Gods, for someone more competent than most, she could be such a child.

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Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear feedback!

#din djarin #the mandalorian #din djarin x reader #mandalorian oc #din djarin x female oc #din djarin x female reader #mando #mando x reader #mando x female reader #mando x f!reader #platonic #mandalorian fanfic #the book of boba fett #guided reyza

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elenaaadaniels · 2 years

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Chapter Nineteen: My Girl

Part 20

Warning(s); Nothing too bad. Fluff, kissing, Din admitting he's a smol bean

___________________________________

Hey. It's all me in my head. I'm the one who burned us down. But it's not what I meant. Sorry that I hurt you. I don't wanna do, I don't wanna do this to you. I don't wanna lose, I don't wanna lose this with you. I need to say, hey. It's all me, just don't go. Meet me in the afterglow.

- 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘉𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘵 ___________________________________

Taking a swing of the shot Bo-Katan got for her, Nadia fought the chills and burning sensation in her throat. She was angry. Angry and hurt that the alcohol in front of her wasn't a good mix she should have, but she was taking it anyway. Din watched behind his visor, surprised when she placed down her fourth shot glass wondering if he should take away the glass now or later.

" How did you know where we were?" Nadia asked breaking the small silence around them.

Bo-katan faced her," It's not every day a Mandalorian other than us is in town."

" Or with two sidekicks." Koska Reeves mumbled.

Din cleared his voice taking charge," I gather your not here for just drinks." He hinted causing Bo-Katan to nod back at him.

" Trask is a black market port. They're staging weapons that have been bought and sold with the plunders of our planet." She explained turning to her comrades before continuing." We're seizing those weapons and using them to retake our home world. Once we've done that, we'll seat a new Mandalore on the throne."

" That planet is cursed. Anyone who goes there dies. Once the Empire knew they couldn't control it, they made sure no one else could either."

Bo-Katan laughed at Din's words," Don't believe everything you hear." She replied smugly." Our enemies wanna separate us. But Mandalorians are stronger together."

Din shook his head," That's not part of my plan. I've been quested with returning this Child to the Jedi."

" What do you know of the Jedi?" Bo-Katan questioned.

" Nothing." Nadia interjected." We never met one."

" I was hoping you would help me by Creed." Din added

" I can lead you to one of their kind. But first, we need your help on our mission."

Nadia frowned," Mission?"

" Not you. You don't share Mandalorian honor."

" If I go, she goes." Din defended and if it was any other time, Nadia would of blushed at his words, but all she could do was roll her eyes.

Bo-katan nodded at his words knowing she needed the help, only secretly hoping Nadia knew what she was doing. Paying for the drinks and food, Bo-Katan lead the way to the ports where it was clear in the distance, a freighter was loading up unaware of the five staring at it.

" You see that Imperial Gozanti freighter?" Bo-Katan questioned turning to Din." It's being loaded with weapons as we speak. According to the port's manifest, it's scheduled to depart at first light."

" So we stow away?"

" We've been hitting 'em pretty hard. They scan for life forms as a precaution before pushing back." Koska explained looking over to Nadia seeing she was nodding her head.

" If you wanna do this with five, you're gonna need the element of surprise."

" Exactly." Bo-Katan agreed cracking a smile to Nadia." The freighter will maintain trawling speed while inside the shipping lanes and then ascend in orbit. We'll jet up when they're cruising in atmosphere. The tower won't allow them to climb until they've left the port's airspace."

Din seemed uneasy," Troopers?"

" A squad at most." Bo-Katan admitted." And they couldn't hit the side of a bantha."

" Okay, we're in." Din agreed looking down to Nadia expecting her to nod, but she never faced him." but we need to drop the kiddo at someone's."

" You have someone to trust?" Axe questioned causing Nadia to turn towards him.

" I have a person in mind." She said standing up and carefully placing the child on her hip.

They carefully slid off of the broken razor crest agreeing on where to meet before Din and Nadia broke away to take the child somewhere safe. He wanted to question where she had in mind for the child to go, but during their walk, almost sped walk not wanting to be by his side or even look in his direction. It made his own stomach turn and he cursed at himself for screwing up so badly. She stopped by a small little hut knocking on the door three times before it opened to the frog lady they helped earlier in the day.

" Hi. Remember me?" She greeted causing the lady to joyfully greet them back." Something's come up. Can I leave him with you for a bit?"

The frog lady spoke to her and a part of Din wish he had learned their language as well to be in the mix.

" She said of course. Anything after bring her eggs." She interpreted for him.

Din nodded his head looking to the child while Nadia handed him over.

" You are gonna stay here, so I want you to be respectful. And mind your manners." He sternly warned." You know what I'm talking about. Thanks. I'll be back for him."

Nadia smiled bending down to the child," Pinkie promise me, you'll be on your best behavior." She said getting a coo out of the child while he wrapped his whole hand around her finger." That's my little guy."

She kissed the top of his head getting another coo out of the child before turning back and leaving the hut with Din. She completely ignored him once again checking her weapons as she walked making sure they were good enough for the mission.

" Nadia-"

" I really don't want to talk right now." She interrupted sharply." We should keep a clear head for the mission."

He shook his head," But Nadia-"

" Not now." She said the last word in a stern voice.

Din could feel the tension radiating from her body and knew she had small tears in her eyes from the way they shined, but she didn't want to admit it. Turning back around just as quickly and continued to walk.

" Haar'chak" He cursed at himself knowing he done much more than screw himself over.

When they got to the meeting point, Bo-Katan went over the plan one more time reminding everyone of their duties. The freighter started up with a loud roar slowly building up before lifting off of the platform and into the air. Bo-Katan nodded her heading giving the signal and soon they all flew up towards the ship. Din held Nadia tightly gaining closer and closer to the ship before they both landed to the sight of stormtroopers.

" Pirates." The one trooper spoke, but Koska grabbed them up throwing them over the edge.

Axe opened the main hull and Bo-Katan was the first to go in taking down three as easily as she could before nodding for them that the coast was safe. They entered the empty hull, but it only lasted seconds before more troopers entered firing at them. Din was quick. He grabbed Nadia by her waist pulling her to the corner and shielding her body with his from any fire power.

" Stop protecting me." She seethed glaring up at him.

He completely ignored her grabbing his arm and placing her behind him with the other Mandalorian's shot their way closer and closer to the hull until no other troopers stood. One trooper came from the corner and quickly, Nadia got her blaster out getting them square in the chest.

" Go, go, go!"

They were all jogging this time through the halls turning left and right until another group of troopers came from the elevator shooting at them. They all hid in the corner watching Din pull a detonator from his side and throw it towards the troopers blinding them all. Through their helmets, they saw the heat signature shooting them through the haze and getting in the elevator.

" Nice shot on that trooper." Bo-Katan complimented looking to Nadia.

She nodded," Thanks."

" I got fifteen reads on troopers where we're going." Axe warned looking onto his coms before back to Bo-Katan." Plan?"

" Flush them out."

When the doors opened, the troopers fired at them all at once until the doors had shut completely dividing them from each other.

" Okay, flush them out now." Bo-Katan ordered causing Axe to open the cargo hatch and rid of any troopers.

When the doors did open, the cargo area was completely empty of troopers and all packages that were inside were perfectly intact latched down ahead of time. Nadia could hear the pleased laugh come from Bo-Katan before she took her helmet off watching as Axe and Koska lifted the case off of each box showing each weapon inside.

" Do you copy?"

Everyone looked to the group where the Imperial solider's comlink was. Bo-Katam gave a satisfied smile before scooping it off the ground and pressing the audio.

" I copy. Thanks for packing up all this gear so nicely. Imagine what a division of us can do when we get our hands on what's inside these shiny little boxes."

" If you think you're going to escape with those weapons, you are sadly mistaken." The man threatened on the other end of the line." Even if you've managed to jettison a few of those crates, we will comb the entire area until you are hunted down and killed."

" Oh, we're not jettisoning anything. We're taking the entire ship."

That instantly caught up to Din and Nadia's ears causing them to turn in shock at the change in plans.

" What?"

Bo-Katan ignored them however," Put some tea on." She ordered." We'll be up in a minute."

With the coms off, Nadia didn't hesitate to march up to the sneaky woman.

" Excuse me, but this is more than I signed up for." She said eying the woman with a hint of a glare.

" There is something I need." She confessed turning to Din once he came over to them." if I am to rule Mandalore. Something that was once mine. They know where it is and soon, so will I. Regardless, we are taking the ship for the battles ahead."

Din shook his head," I got you your weapons. I have to return to my ship with the foundling."

" If you want my help finding the Jedi, you will help me take this ship." She bargained going over what Din had said.

Nadia accused harshly," You're changing the terms of the deal."

" This is the way." She echoed eying the Mandalorian down before placing her helmet on leaving.

Axe and Koska followed close behind leaving Din and Nadia in the empty hull unable to say a word because they needed to find the Jedi in order to help the child. Nadia could sense the anger from Din, and grabbed her blaster from her side nudging his side.

" Let's just do it."

Din knew she was right. Taking the ship would delay them, but they needed the information to help the child and they made it this far for nothing. He grabbed his blaster coming to Nadia's side following right behind the others until the entire ship dove forward.

" They're taking the ship down!" Bo-Katan shouted over the alarms." There's the bridge. Come on!"

The minute the words left her mouth, troopers rounded the corner of the bridge firing at them that it was a miracle they had time to hide.

" How many troopers?"

" Six to ten." Axe announced peering over the corner." Two with heavy repeating blasters."

" We're losing altitude fast."

" We need to move now."

" They have too much firepower!"

" Still dropping." Koska reminded." Ten thousand."

" Cover me." Din said abandoning Nadia's side before she could even grab him.

"Mando!" She shouted in horror, but did as he told, grabbing her blaster and covering him the best she could from the troopers firepower.

Din threw his detonators at the troopers causing it to explode on contact getting rid of all the troopers in a ball of fire. When the flames went down, Nadia left the others side touching Din's shoulder lightly burning herself from the beskar's warmth.

" Din, can you hear me?"

He nodded his head getting back up," Come on!"

She nodded hitting the control button and having the doors open to a single imperial solider forcing the controls down to plummet the ship. Din rushed over ripping the solider from the seat and taking his place while Nadia hopped over the second one grabbing the wheel.

" Easy. Easy." Din coaxed.

With all her mighty, she pulled on the wheel with a small fear it would break off and screw them all, but to the luck of the maker, the ship sloped up just in time heading back into the atmosphere. With less of a struggle, she released some of her hold turning to Din as the two couldn't suppress the small chuckle of relief.

" I'll let you live." Bo-Katan seethed breaking them from their laughter." But you will take me to him."

" You might let me live, but he won't." The man answered biting down and sending volts of electricity throughout his body firing his brain within seconds.

" No!" Bo-Katan shouted in anger letting the man fall to the ground.

" We have to go." Koska warned turning to her." He sent a distress signal."

" Clear the atmosphere and prepare to jump."

Din nudged Nadia's side immediately," Come on."

" Are you sure you won't join us?" Bo-Katan questioned facing the two helpers.

" There's something I need to do."

" The offer stands if you change your mind."

Din nodded back," Where can I find the Jedi?"

Bo-Katan nodded removing her helmet for them to hear her clearly," Take the foundling to the city of Calodan on the forest planet of Corvus." She instructed." There you will find Ahsoka Tano. Tell her you were sent by Bo-Katan. And thank you. Your bravery will not be forgotten. Yours too. This is the Way."

" This is the Way." Din repeated grabbing Nadia's hands as they raced through the ship once again getting to the main entrence.

Once on the balcony, Nadia gulped at the distance from here to the ground wrapping her arms around Din's neck who was already wrapping her in his arms. Jumping from the edge, she squeezed her eyes shut at the feeling of falling until he turned on his jetpack flying them over to the familiar hut the child was staying at. Once on the ground, she thanked her stars before slowly walking to the hut doors and knocking until it opened. A smile pasted on her face when seeing the child with the frog parents and a little tadpole in front of them already hatched.

" There's my little guy." She chuckled walking over.

" Thank you for watching him." He said shaking the parents hands before lightly taking the child." Okay, kid. Come on. It's time to go. Congratulations."

As they left however, the child wiggled in Din's arms trying to go back to the little tadpole determine written on his wrinkly little face.

" No, I have enough pets." Din muttered causing the child to let out of frustrated huff.

Nadia shook her head at the little guy feeling both sleep and exhaustion start to creep up on her after the last two days they endured. She knew it would continue however when they got to the port to see the horrible state their ship was still left in. Rope was literally holding the crest together with different sheets of metal in oddly placed areas.

" I gave you a thousand credits, this was the best you could do?" He questioned the worker only for them to place a pad in front of Din to be able to gain their credits.

Din was too tired to care sending the credits his way and boarded onto the Crest. To say the least, the outside was much nicer than the inside. Fishing net was what was holding up the inside with the salty smell of the ocean still lingering inside and some seaweed hanging on the side of the seats.

" Mon Calamari. Unbelievable."

" Do you think we're even safe to travel like this?" Nadia said taking a seat only to gag when she had slimy seaweed on it.

" I don't even think we have a choice." Din answered turning on the ship only for it to shake violently from the action." On second thought. I think we need to make a pit stop."

Nadia nodded her head touching her keypads with the tip of her fingers from how slimy it was placing in the planet Corvus. She could see it was A forested planet, but any living plant was burned away, plundering the natural resources of the planet. The child cooed in an odd manner that caused both Din and Nadia to see a creature about to attack him, but Din caught it in time seeing it was a sea animal.

" Eat it." Din groaned tossing it to the child who caught it with his small mouth and gobbled it up." I finally know where I'm taking you. But it's gonna be a bumpy ride."

" Is the main hull secured?" Nadia asked spinning in her seat.

" Yeah."

" Alright, little guy." She breathed standing up and holding him." Now that you ate, let's get you something to drink and off to bed."

The child let out a sound likely trying to argue with her, but it was too cute to take serious. Din heard them head down the ladder before the doors closed leaving him alone in the cockpit. He took a deep breath leaning against his seat as the nerves turned his stomach. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to tell her how scared he was when she fell into that river and how much he loved holding her while they slept. He wanted to tell her how he never felt this with anyone and it scared him, but that was the thing. He was scared.

Frightened. Terrified. Petrified. Intimated.

He never had something like this before. A lone solider his whole life and now he had the little green kid that replied on him and someone that made his heart soar all around the galaxy. When the going got tough, he shut himself off, but it was different now. He didn't just have himself anymore. It didn't take long before Nadia got the child to sleep. He must have gotten little sleep to likely placing with the tadpole all night and day with the parents. The minute she heard him snore loudly, she knew he was out for the night and placed him in his little bunk.

She wanted to join the little guy, but one glance at the main hull and she was off moving some things to clean the area seeing the Mon Calmari really did do such a terrible job. She was busy throwing away some seaweed into a trash bag to hear Din come down the ladder. He nervously took a deep breath hearing his voice already shaky.

" I don't regret saving you." He spoke causing her to glance over to him before turning back to what she was doing.

" You sure regret something."

" I don't regret anything." He repeated walking closer to her." You are always worth saving."

" Well, it didn't feel like that for the last two days." She snapped dropping the trash bag onto the floor and walking further away from him.

He nodded his head agreeing with her." It just keeps replaying in my head. What happened. What could of happened." He continued walking again towards her." I just never felt like this with someone like how I feel about you."

Nadia was shocked. She placed the rag down that she was using and turned over to him with wide eyes unable to focus on a single word.

" Oh."

Din nodded again taking her hands into his," Nadia...I'm not best at this. I don't know what I'm doing." He admitted getting a small chuckle out of her." I think for the first time ever, I don't know what to do and I don't want to screw it up. Until you, all I knew was a bad kind of love. You're different."

She smiled staring at the Mandalorian in front of her that could make her heart skip a beat and sometimes upset over the silliest of things. She leaned forward standing on her toes to be able to kiss him on his beskar forehead.

" You're different for me too." She admitted staring at his visor." You just need to remember, I'm not a stranger. You can tell me anything. I'm not going anywhere."

Those words buried into his brain so deep that part of his fears were healed. She wasn't just some stranger anymore. She was someone who knew who he truly was over these eight months. Someone that made him smile under the helmet and blush all at the same time.

" Close your eyes." He instructed and she smile instantly knowing what he mean't.

He smiled himself placing his hands at the edge of his helmet and slipping it off with a hiss of air. He trusted Nadia more than he trusted anyone. Knew he didn't have to tie something over her eyes cause she would never dare to see him. Even now in the empty main hull, she squeezed her eyes shut. With the helmet off, he could see her more clearer. The lamp dim gave her skin more of a bronze hue soft to the touch. He couldn't help, but to take his glove off and touch her cheek.

She leaned into his touch, a smile on her face as her cheeks flared pink. Din’s cuirass freezes as he holds a breath in his chest, his gloved hands brushing down her back and holding her waist as he silently urges her closer. Nadia kept her hands on the sides of his helmet, looking at him with all the affection and care she held in her heart for him. When he releases the breath he’s been holding, Din speaks, his modulated rasp nearly breaking with desperation as he says the two words that change everything.

" Be my girl."

She laughs a sweet one that it's music to his ears.

" Only if you'll be my Mandalorian."

He smiles leaning forward kissing her right on the lips.

He's overwhelmed with a wave of such warmth that for a moment he think he might be burning alive. But then every sense within him comes alive, bursting in a beautiful display of pure affection as he urges Nadia even closer. His hands cups the side of her face as they continue to kiss. Nadia can feel the way their hearts come together the same way their mouths have, each simultaneous beat matching the movements of lips. They don’t stop until they’re sweetly suffocated by everything, pulling away with heavy yet satisfied breaths. Nadia smiled at him—and he smiled right back at her.

" You make everything in my life just seem a bit brighter." He admitted leaning his forehead against hers.

" Is that a bad thing?" She asked worried.

" It's something I'm not use to." He clarifies moving some hair behind her ear." Something about you makes me feel a little more alive and less lost."

" You never thought you'd get this attached did you?" She chuckles causing him to nod against her.

" No, but I don't want it to stop." He admits kissing her forehead." Why...why don't you sleep in my bunk with me tonight?"

She's surprised," Really?"

" It's clear we both get a goodnights rest when we're together." He bargained, but she nodded wanting to be close as they were two nights ago.

Din guided her over to his bunk turning the lamps off in the main hull to plunge the ship into complete darkness. He carefully tried to take off the beskar only for it to fall onto the ground a bit loudly with a girlish laugh from Nadia.

" Din, are you okay?"

" Guess I failed in being quiet." He spoke causing another laugh from her.

With all the beskar gone, he used muscle memory to walk over to the bunk carefully slipping in to not both crush Nadia or accidentally hurt her. Once he was settled in, she curled up to his side resting her head on his chest while he placed his arm around her waist scooting her closer. She breathed in his scent seeing after there mission, he still smelled like men's soap a just a bit of cologne. She felt a pang of nervousness wondering if she smelled like seaweed from earlier cleaning, but when he buried his face into his hair, she knew either way he didn't care. Nadia could feel herself falling asleep. One moment in her mind and the next almost in a dream when he spoke softly into the night.

" I won't let anything hurt you, Cyar'ika."

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stickysweetdaydreams · 24 days

Text

💭 Capture-Bonded (Boba Fett x Princess!Oc) 💭

(Fanfic Excerpt 2)

*These excerpts will be posted in random order due to me not having everything written in chronological order yet!

*ALSO! this version of Boba Fett is based on his original backstory that existed before the prequels [from the "tales of the bounty hunters" and "bounty hunter wars" EU books.] he is not a clone. headcanon voice is jason wingreen (original VA).

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Neph had started to wonder if she was being drugged.

She had gained more freedom to move around on the Slave I. It was a small freedom, but a freedom nonetheless.

With being given more space came this strange feeling.

She had only been on the ship for a few days, but it started feeling more safe.

This feeling confused her deeply.

How could it be possible to feel safe with a bounty hunter?

Maybe it was just a result of the extension of the deal.

She had thought back to overhearing the conversation between Boba Fett and the aristocratic client that had put in the morbid request to capture her.

Fett seemed somewhat disgruntled at the modification of 'contract'.

He had already done his job and all he had to do was bring the princess from point A to point B, and then he would be paid.

But now he had to wait.

Essentially playing a game of 'keep away from the other bounty hunters' or something like that.

She had wondered why he didn't just go directly to the foreign planet, hold a blaster to the creature's head, and demand payment at that very moment.

He could have. She had heard about the type of person that Fett was. He didn't seem like the type to just go along with this type of meandering nonsense.

It was a pretty deranged concept, but Neph had found it typical of a being with too much time and too many credits.

This was just a fun way of gambling and making bets.

A game.

But maybe this was what made Neph feel safe.

She was being guarded and protected. For now.

There was no mistake about the fact that Fett was likely the most terrifying bounty hunter in the galaxy, but he was also very straightforward when it came to his work.

He was far less likely to toy with his bounties or engage in anything shady. He was simply interested in business.

The same could not be said for some other hunters who took a strange pleasure in the grotesque.

But Neph still felt like it was overwhelmingly strange that she should feel this way. Perhaps it was just a coping mechanism. A way to try and come to terms with her fate.

Or something else entirely.

Capture-bonding.

She didn't entertain the idea any further.

She thought about the extra week that was being given to her. An extension of life.

It nauseated her, so she pushed the thought away.

A lot of things could happen in a week.

Maybe the deal could fall through?

Maybe the client would change his mind?

Maybe she-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a whistling sound that was meant to get her attention.

Neph turned her face to the direction of the sound to see Boba Fett standing a few feet away from her.

He seemed to be more relaxed than usual with one of his hands resting on his belt.

It frightened her that she hadn't heard him enter the room. Usually she could hear the faint jingling sound of his boots.

Maybe she was just too lost in her own world at the moment.

He tilted his head in the direction of the holding cell as a way to signal for her to look over to it.

She turned her head and saw that there was food for her. It was in its usual little tray, just resting on the bench.

It had begun to look less disgusting with each passing day.

She was not a picky eater by any means, though. Over the course of the few months when she was in hiding, she actually got used to eating almost anything.

It was a strange adjustment after having grown up with personal chefs and a wide variety of high quality meals, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

She supposed that prisoner food wasn't meant to be appetizing, but she was appreciative that it was seemingly becoming more edible.

Neph could have sworn she almost wanted to smile a bit, but she kept her face from showing any emotion.

All she did was subtly bow her head as a show of gratitude.

"Thank you."

Fett nodded and turned to walk away. This time she did hear the little jingling sound.

She was overcome with the desire to say something more to keep him from leaving her alone again.

Not that he was great company to have around, but the solitude was beginning to get to her head.

She took a breath to say something, but couldn't find the words.

Of course the bounty hunter heard this and he paused for a moment, turning back to look at her inquisitively.

Neph froze up beneath the steely gaze of his helmet.

"I...know you're probably busy...but I just...I miss..."

Oh, Maker.

She felt utterly stupid.

This was ridiculous.

She didn't even know if she could finish the sentence, and cursed herself for opening her mouth in the first place.

It was too late to stop now, though.

He was waiting for her to finish her thought.

She dug her nails into the palms of her hands, making fists, forcing herself to spit the words out.

"I miss having company...I know that being on death row isn't meant to be cozy and pleasant, but I don't really want to be alone right now...I thought that perhaps...If it’s not too bothersome…"

She slowly stopped herself from rambling as she watched Boba Fett move a crate over to the nearby wall, nudging it ungracefully with his boot.

He sat down on it and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head to the side slightly.

Neph swallowed.

Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

She had forgotten that he wasn't the most relaxing presence to have around. But she just shook the uncomfortable feeling off.

She swayed nervously, her dress gently moving along with the motion.

She felt...shy.

"You should eat before it gets too cold."

That voice.

She hadn't heard it in a little while and it was almost like hearing it for the first time again.

It scared her, almost making her jump.

The princess nodded and meekly walked over to the cell, sitting down on the little bench and beginning to eat the food.

"I'm sorry for making you sit here with me..."

She was careful to finish chewing before speaking. Despite being a prisoner and on the run for months, she tried to keep most of her manners in tact.

Fett shrugged a bit. It would have been unnoticeable if Neph wasn't truly paying attention.

"You're not making me do anything. I'm here of my own accord."

She had realized it was silly for her to assume that she could actually 'make' someone like him keep her company.

Of course he did it of his own volition.

She nodded again, finding herself doing that often.

"I know...I suppose I mean to say...I'm sorry for asking. I know it's a silly request."

"You just worry about eating that food."

The command shut her up quickly.

It didnt come out harsh or anything like that.

He actually sounded very calm.

Still, she found herself not wanting to be obstinate, even with a very casual instruction.

She continued eating, feeling a burning warmth in her face the entire time.

Shame. Discomfort.

Neph wished that the bounty hunter would stop staring so intently.

She couldn't see his eyes, of course, but she knew exactly where they were looking.

Staring straight through her.

Her mind wandered as she ate quietly.

From one thought to another, she couldn't quite focus on a single thing.

Then she thought about being drugged again, looking down at the almost empty tray.

"Why is it that you're so adamant about me eating?" Neph asked, looking up from her lap to stare at the man across the room.

"I've had bounties make an attempt to starve themselves in the past. The alternative of being force fed isn't very pleasant and I wouldn't recommend it. Especially not for a princess like yourself. I'm not very gentle with that sort of thing."

Fett shifted in his seat a bit, getting more comfortable.

Neph had put away the idea of him sneaking any kind of substances in her food as she finished it.

"I hope this isn't asking for too much, but...Well…It's been somewhat cold in this cell at night...May I possibly have a blanket to keep myself warm?" Neph inquired as politely as she could.

The bounty hunter thought silently for a moment.

He did not discriminate when it came to bounties. He would pretty much take any job so long as it paid well, Male or Female, it didn't matter.

But despite this, he often found himself wanting to be slightly more patient with women.

He had recognized that they were almost always more delicate than men. It was just biologically true.

So how much more so did he feel the need to be forgiving when it came to a princess? Especially one that was so good at being compliant and making his job that much easier.

The only real offense she had committed was digging up a piece of his past.

But even still, it wasn't out of malice, and it wasn't truly a big deal to Fett. It had just caught him very off guard, and he found it to be moderately irritating.

"If you don't have any blankets, it's alright. I could use some sort of a towel or-"

Neph paused when he stood up, afraid that she had been asking for too much.

"Follow me."

The princess slowly stood up, fearful of where this was going. She brushed a few strands of hair out of her face to give her hands something to do as she trailed behind the bounty hunter.

A pointless motion as they fell back into place once again.

She had missed her maid servants tending to her long hair.

Washing, brushing, and braiding it for her.

It was very much like a ritual for the women on Mystra. Hair was like an extension of themselves, and it was treated with lots of care and kindness to keep it healthy and maintained.

Unlike almost every other culture, it wasn't used very much as a display piece. It was just something to be treasured and looked after.

Neph had felt crestfallen over not being able to care for it properly. It was very tangled and unkempt.

The only thing she could do was run her fingers through it to try and keep it from becoming too disheveled.

But that wasn't exactly good enough.

Fett stopped in front of a door and it slid open, revealing a small room with nothing but a bed in it.

Neph had assumed it was the place where he would sometimes sleep, but she guessed that he would usually just rest in his pilot seat.

He didn't seem like one to care about being comfortable.

"You may sleep in here."

He turned to look at her.

Her expression was a bit nervous.

"Are you sure? I don't want to steal your sleeping space. I'm alright with just a blanket and staying in the cell..."

Boba Fett nodded slowly.

"Alright...Well, thank you..."

Neph steadily and quietly padded into the room.

She had turned around to say something along the lines of 'Goodnight, I promise I won't try to do anything troublesome', but he had already turned and started walking away.

So she just gently closed the door.

The bed was far more comfortable than the cell she had spent previous nights in.

There was only one thing that had caused her stomach to do a flip as she got under the covers.

The bed smelled like him.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

#boba fett fanfiction #boba fett #boba fett x oc #boba fett x female reader #star wars #capture-bonded

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acatalystrising · 2 years

Text

It’s the final day of October, but I have no plans to stop writing prompts and continual series! @ceapa-mica and I are still writing Second Chances, and here, without further ado, is chapter two! This has been so much fun and I can’t wait to continue!

Pairing: Boba Fett x OC f!Reader

Rating: Explicit 18+

Trigger warnings: assassination attempt, death threats, cannon violence, injuries/blood, side character deaths, angst, eventual smut

Series synopsis: Boba Fett gets tasked to assassinate an Imperial quarry for a fine amount of credits. But as it turns out, his target has a secret, one that drastically changes his plans. Little does Boba know this job will change his entire life - drawing him closer to his father than ever before.

Chapter two

Boba Fett had caught quite a few of his quarries under dire circumstances - but he always collected his payment.

Oh, many had tried to beg, plead, and haggle their way out of his grasp. Some had offered their lives in his servitude. Others, their bodies. And far many more, their money. But it never worked. Every single one of them faced the consequences of their actions, and he got paid.

Every single time. No matter what.

But for the first time in a while, Boba was truly surprised - the circumstance before him something he never would have expected.

He aimed his blaster at her the second he opened the door, but before he could pull the trigger, his gaze went to her round belly she kept halfway hidden under a dark blanket that certainly had seen better days. She was pregnant? Tarkin had failed to provide that detail…that was, if he even knew.

Kriff. This complicates things.

Boba Fett was the most notorious bounty hunter in the parsec, but he held a moral code, as his father had before him. He’d killed many in his pursuit of his quarries, but a baby? He drew the line at children. This job was already more trouble than it was worth. Tarkin clearly didn’t know the full situation, and it made him wonder what else the bastard wasn't aware of.

He stood motionless, conflicted thoughts crashing through him like waves. He’d experienced much in his life, even more so during his years as a bounty hunter…but this? This was new.

A blaster shot striking his beskar chestplate shook him out of his thoughts. His gaze flicked back to the woman, who had pressed herself against the back corner, blue eyes staring up at him in terror, blaster shaking in her trembling grasp.

She couldn’t hurt him, especially in her state. He knew that, and he had a feeling she did, too. This was only a last ditch effort to keep danger away, but her own body had sealed her fate. There would be no more running for her now. She was clearly exhausted - pained eyes filled with terror, chapped lips indicating dehydration, and shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep. She didn't look much different from other quarries he'd hunted down in the past, if it wasn't for the obvious baby bump.

So…this was Kaia Tarkin.

"Shoot me again and I will end you both." Boba finally spoke, tone low, threat rolling like the thunder above.

Kaia swallowed hard, chest heaving, and let the blaster fall from her grasp. It skidded across the wooden floor of the hut until Boba stopped it with his foot and casually picked it up. It was a simple weapon, military grade issued to Imperial aviators - yet another piece in this rapidly expanding puzzle.

But he didn’t care. He wasn’t here to solve this insignificant mystery - he was here to kill her, here to get paid. He’d killed women before. Stained his hands in the blood of those who surely deserved to live. And yet…

He noticed that she didn't look one bit like the Imperial women he’d seen on the holopad. If not for the tracking fob leading him here, to her, he’d question if this was his prey. But Tarkin had been right; she did look weak, worn to the bone…but it made sense, given the circumstances. There was no other way she’d look - pregnant, on the run, and rapidly approaching childbirth.

Boba rolled his eyes, grateful for his helmet, frustration welling in his mind like the storm that increased in rage above. He’d kill her after the kid was born, he decided. Drop the baby off at the nearest local orphanage and call it a day. That, in his mind, was quite the gracious extension of mercy. Lesser hunters would kill them both and leave without a mark on their conscience…

But he was better than the rest.

I hope this won't take long.

Kaia Tarkin trembled in fear as Boba cocked his head, regarding her silently. Distant thunder rattled the hut’s walls, and several of rainwater leaked through the roof, already leaving small puddles on the wooden floor. The woman cried out in pain, face contorted in agony, and Boba watched as her grip on the dirty blanket tightened. Her breath came in ragged, uneven gasps, tears welling in her eyes even as she kept her gaze latched on him.

"Please…don't. I know why you're here.” She struggled to speak, the tears dripping down her cheeks resembling the pouring rain. “I don’t…care what you do to me a-after this. Just don’t…hurt my baby. Please don't kill me…yet. I - help me, please!"

Boba hesitated.

He’d heard every excuse. Every plea. Every doomed soul’s attempt to escape their fate. But this situation was entirely different - an innocent life was at stake, a life he was not supposed to kill. Nor had he been paid to do so.

“I…know who you are. I can’t run. Won’t try.” She closed her eyes, more tears slipping down her face. But when they reopened, Boba was surprised to see a raw strength there, something he wouldn’t expect from one of Tarkin’s line. “I’m not…stupid. I k-know I won’t leave this place. But…gods, I can’t let you hurt her. She’s the only good thing I have.”

Her. Boba’s lips twisted in a frown, and he regarded her swollen stomach with a sigh. She wasn’t trying to run. If anything, her accepting her fate would make this easier for them both.

"Relax. I won’t hurt you…for now." He looked around the hut with a frown, gaze then flicking to the ceiling to estimate the amount of leaks.

He noticed some pots and beckets stacked next to a row of dusty crates, and moved to collect them. He ignored the woman’s fearful flinch at his sudden movement, taking the buckets and placing them underneath the leaks. The least he could do was ensure she didn’t drown before giving birth. He faced her, feeling entirely out of place, and tilted his helmet down at her with a light sigh.

"I don't know much about what you're going through.” His voice, amplified by his vocorder, cut through the dark, but he did his best to sound calm despite his frustration. “Never witnessed it before. Tell me how I can help you."

Kaia looked up at him in surprise, pale lips twisted in a distrustful frown, and her brows lowered at the softer tone in his voice.

"The locals brought me towels and clean water. I’ll need both.” She pointed at a box covered in less dust than the others. “It's in that box over there."

An old table stood to the side, and he grabbed the towels and several canisters of drinking water from the box, placing them on the warped wooden surface. He once again turned to face her, unclipping his canteen and filling it to the brim.

“You need water. Drink.” He crouched next to her and handed her the canteen.

She watched him for a moment, fear still shining in her eyes, before she finally gave in a reached for the canteen with trembling fingers. When he didn’t lash out or make any move to attack, she let a sigh slip from her lips.

"The water is to bathe the baby…but you're right, I should hydrate."

Boba watched her gulp the water down greedily and sighed, nearly shaking his helmeted head. He hated complications. And yet, at least for now, he was at a stalemate with this weakened, trembling woman.

A sharp gust of wind blew the door open, the false whipping up the dust. Boba lunged, slamming the door back shut with a gloved palm, and she trembled, but this time not out of fear.

How pathetic. This won’t do.

Boba unclipped his cape with great trepidation, handing it over before he changed his mind. Her pale fingers gripped the cloth, still shaking, but she draped it over herself without any complaint.

"How long until the baby's born?” He crossed his arms, keeping his blaster in his hand, just in case. “I'm on the clock."

"I…don't know. That depends on how far I'm dilated, and this hut doesn’t have a mirror. You’d have to take a look and measure with your hand."

"You want me to do what?”

Kriff. This is wrong. So, so wrong, I’m not made for this. Why me, why this job?

Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the hut with a tremendous boom, and even Boba flinched when the roof above them shuddered. The storm was still intensifying, and he wondered if it would sweep them both away in its fury.

Boba didn’t think of himself as superstitious, but he did believe that his father’s spirit lived on in the rain. There was nothing more familiar or comforting to him than a drenching downpour or raging storm.

It reminded him of home, of Kamino…and many memories of his father.

And in that moment, despite his mounting frustration, it felt like his father was with him.

Boba knew his every action in the coming hours would impact more than one life. It was against his code to kill a pregnant woman and an unborn child. He had to help her, although every fiber of his being wanted to either shoot her or run from the situation. But he wasn’t a coward, so that was out of the question. No…he had to help her, whether he wanted to or not. And once the baby was born, he’d be able to finish his job and move on to the next hunt.

He eventually felt his reservations break. He holstered his blaster with a sigh and knelt before her.

This was new. He’d had his one night flings with women before, but there was nothing sexual about this - he had to help a woman through what he imagined was the worst pain a human could feel. So he removed his gloves and lit a lantern, the flame flickering weakly in the dark.

Boba had never thought this would take so long.

The weather got worse with each passing hour, and his quarry’s pain only grew more excruciating.

He’d eventually been forced to remove his helmet, the hut’s cramped space too warm despite his beskar’s interior cooking system. At least the woman would be dead soon - and the baby would be too young to remember his face. But dank farrik, Boba was stressed. He’d been shot before, had gotten into more fights than he could count, but never had he been in so much pain as this woman.

He sat next to her despite his reservations. Every action of care felt too kind for his liking, but he tried to focus on the credits. He logged every detail - every ration bar shared, every item of his used. He fully intended to demand more from Tarkin after this. At one point, during a particularly painful contraction, she’d reached out and latched onto his hand. He’d grimaced and allowed it to happen, trying to breathe with her, hoping it would help ease the process. Their hostility had been stalled for the moment - the baby’s survival top priority.

"You're doing well." he said, doing his best to soften the harshness from his voice.

She screamed, and to be honest, Boba wanted to scream too. Not out of pain, but frustration. He wanted to ease the pain but there was nothing he could do, and there was no medcenter on this maker-forsaken planet. He thought for a moment and decided to distract her and just started talking in a voice as soothing as he could muster.

"I take it your grandfather doesn't know about the pregnancy?" he asked eventually.

Boba could care less about his quarries' backstories, but this one intrigued him somehow. These were unique circumstances after all.

“We’re not close.” Despite her pain, Kaia managed to roll her eyes with a huff. “My family got me this position as an Imperial officer…hoped it would benefit their reputation. Wanted me to fit in with the rest of them."

She grabbed Boba's hand again as yet another contraction ripped through her body.

"And then - aahh! Then I met Aven, he was one of our best pilots. A few months ago rebels attacked the fleet and he got killed defending it." Kaia's voice trembled and tears welled in her eyes. "We wanted to desert together, raise this baby and maybe join the Rebellion. Ever since I left, I never stayed in one place for too long. All I know is I must keep the baby away from my grandfather, my parents…all of them. They’d…make the baby suffer because it's illegitimate."

"Don't expect me to show mercy for you.” Boba made sure his tone held enough warning to carry the weight of his words. The last thing he needed was for this woman to think he’d be merciful just because he was helping her. “This isn’t personal, it's just business."

Kaia closed her eyes for a moment and blinked away a few tears. She knew the closer she got to giving birth, the closer she got to her death. But the clock was ticking, and there would be no escape.

"What about your family?" She watched him with knitted brows, sweat slicking her forehead and slipping down her temples. “Did you always want to become a bounty hunter?”

“My father…was a bounty hunter. The best.” He clenched his free hand out of her sight, willing himself not to snap. He didn’t talk about his buir - not with other hunters, and especially not with bounties. But here he was, in this moment, and he found the words slipped out anyway. “He was murdered by a Jedi when I was young.”

“I’m…sorry. Truly. Your mother?” She shifted, crying out when another contraction shook her, fresh tears slipping down her cheeks. “Siblings?”

Oh, he would have killed anyone else who pried like this. No one. No one ever dared to be this bold. He clenched his hand so tightly it shook, whiteness flooding his scarred knuckles. The thunder still rumbled above, the steady downpour refusing to cease. It was as if the storm itself wanted to pry into Boba’s memories.

Memories of his father.

“My past is…complicated, but no, I never had a mother.” He took a heaving breath, tone darkening, and he fought to keep himself calm. He didn’t feel like discussing the fact that he was a clone with a stranger, a bounty. “But…I’ll never forget him. No matter the job, he’d always come back for me. Sometimes I got to go along. Other times…”

Other times he was left alone. More times than he wanted to admit. And kriff, he remembered that deep loneliness that often settled in his chest on those nights his little home was empty. He’d always peered out of the window at the pouring rain and crashing waves - hoping he’d see his dad flying back for him. Hoping he’d stay.

Damn it all. This woman was making him think, feel. He needed to kill her sooner than later.

“We all can manage, but…” Kaia’s eyes locked on his, once again carrying a fiery intensity that took him by surprise. “I don’t care who you are. Everyone needs a mother.”

Oh, he knew the subtext of that declaration.

Part of him was proud that this woman, despite her agonizing situation, was still fighting back in the only way she could. But he was also angry. Angry at Tarkin for being so out of touch with his own family, and consequently, dragging him into this mess. Angry that he wasn’t able to simply finish his job and leave. Even angrier that he was being forced to face pain he’d rather shove deep, deep down and run away from.

Before he had a chance to speak, she screamed again, raw and ragged, eyes squeezing shut as another contraction shuddered through her body. She gripped his hand so tightly he grunted, gaze flicking over her as he awaited instruction. Surely they had to be close…

“Perhaps they do. But we all don’t get what we need.” Boba held her hand tightly, jaw clenched, forcing the words out. “But if we’re strong enough, we learn to survive.”

“Make sure…my baby survives, then…” she shivered, pain flaring in her crystal blue eyes, “and you can do what you must with me. I’ll die…if I know she’s safe…”

Oh stars, all these promises.

“I won’t kill her,” Boba felt the words slipping from his lips even as his mind still wrestled with his thoughts. “I give my word.”

That was the most he’d promise. Anything more would be too far - and he didn’t give his word unless he could follow through. He still wanted his money, and he wouldn’t get stuck with a child. He was an orphan, and he’d made it. This baby, if she was as strong as her mother, would too.

Kaia’s scream cut through Boba’s thoughts, and he glanced at her with a frown as she panted, sweat glistening on her skin in the firelight. Her grip on his hand tightened again, nearly hurting, followed by another scream.

“I’m gonna need help…not much longer…” she swallowed, voice hoarse, hair tangled and sticking to her skin.

“Tell me what to do,” Boba ensured he sounded confident despite his own lack of knowledge. “I’ll do what I can.”

The thunder cracked the sky above, mingling with Kaia’s scream, drowning out her cries as the rain intensified and pounded the hut’s roof. Boba held her hand tight, and wondered if either of them would emerge from this storm unscathed.

Boba had little experience with children.

He had even less experience with babies. In fact, he was certain he’d never held one before. But despite his inexperience, he found it curious that holding a screaming, impossibly small human came more naturally than he’d expected.

Kaia was trembling, absolutely exhausted, but despite her weakness she held out her arms, and Boba handed the squirming baby over.

The look in her eyes when she held the girl for the very first time resembled one Boba remembered from his father. It was an expression he’d seen in those dark eyes oh so similar to his own in tender moments they’d shared. Boba swallowed his emotions and focused on the present.

"Vyn. Her name is Vyn." She held the infant close to her chest and stroked the little brown fuzz-covered head.

When her gaze flicked back to him, he noticed that look in her eyes again. For a short moment all the exhaustion written in her eyes was gone - replaced by something fierce. Something unbreakable.

After a moment of hesitation, she handed the baby back into Boba's arms so he could clean her off.

He did his best to be gentle, finding all of this to be so against his nature as a hunter - but he did his best, ensuring she was cleaned and dried before wrapping her in a towel and returning her to Kaia's arms.

She lifted the child to her chest, and Boba turned, focusing on gathering his gear - the least he could do was afford her some privacy in her final moments. When he turned back to face her, she’d tucked the baby underneath the blankets…looking so at peace despite her inevitable death.

The sight caused a strange feeling in his gut. Was it sadness? Regret? He couldn't place it.

He glanced down at his helmet, his dark eyes reflecting in the black visor, and felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him with much more force than he realized. He sat back down beside her, still waiting to see if Kaia would try anything desperate, even as he felt his body fighting to maintain consciousness.

Logic told him that if he was tired, she was even more so, and for the moment she wasn’t going to move. And he was close enough to her that he’d feel her try to shift away - he was a light sleeper, after all.

He’d finish the job, leave this hellhole of a planet behind, and move on with his life.

But first, he needed rest.

#boba fett x oc #boba fett x female reader #boba fett x f!reader #rotj boba fett #second chances fic #boba fett fan fiction #boba fett x fem!reader #acatalystrising writes #ceapa mica #boba fett #star wars

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bobathirstaccount · 1 year

Text

Ripples: Only Love Pt V

Boba x fem!reader, Boba & oc

TW: none

***

“Ophelia, get the extra tea service.” Mother’s voice was impatient. Lily had been running around all morning, preparing for the big party. Mother’s youngest daughter was having a birthday. Lily wondered what it would be like to turn 13 as she dashed about. But still, she wasn’t fast enough. Mother slapped her on the back of the head. “Quickly, now! We only have ten more minutes before the first guests will arrive!”

Lily carefully trotted through the house, expertly balancing everything. She had learnt her new role quickly. Nothing else would do in Mother’s household, anyway. “Why are you so slow, girl!” Mother clapped her hands angrily. Lily fluidly set the service down, adjusting the tray just so. She stepped back reverently. It was done. “Out, out!” Mother shooed her out of the room.

Relegated to the kitchen, she listened to the party wind up as she ate her meager lunch. No one would bother her for awhile. Soon she would not be hungry. She was content. She let her mind wander…

She thought about Soly, her blaster. Foolishly, she had left it on the ship the day her and her mother had been taken. If only she had had her blaster; maybe she could have saved them.

Trying to think of anything but that fateful day, she instead remembered the slave market. It had been terrible at first. The club she and you had worked at had closed. All the girls had been sold in lots to various slavers in the area. Determined, somehow the two of you had stayed together until you had reached your temporary home: a 13 x 13 room you shared with several other women and girls.

Days passed as you waited to be scanned for a health analysis, then assigned a number. Next, you would go up for auction. Separation was imminent. But —

“Ophelia! More black tea!” Mother was suddenly in the kitchen yelling. Lily jumped up, scrambling to comply.

***

“You’re up today,” the slaver casually taunted through the bars of your cell. You bit your lip. Lily was still asleep, so she hadn’t heard. That was good. However, it was true that today was the day you and Lily would go up for auction. There was nothing to do but wait for it to happen. As much as the waiting had driven you crazy, the closeness of the auction was terrifying. Anything could happen.

After another hour, your final meals were tossed into the cell. You woke Lily to eat. You said nothing of your thoughts. But she was already sullen. She knew the day just as well as you did.

Hours ticked by. There was no sense of how much longer it would be. Lily cried on and off. You wanted to cry too, but held it in for her sake. The others sat alone or huddled together, distressed as well. The cell filled with desperation.

The door opened and a droid came in. “Now. Come,” its clipped metallic voice grated on your nerves. You fell into line, putting Lily in front of you so you could keep an eye on her. For whatever good it would do. You started to walk.

You followed, watching the back of the droid’s head. You wound through several corridors. Finally you entered a large open space. It seemed like some kind of arena. You squinted, looking past the droid. You saw it. The auction block. Someone was standing there, stooped and alone. Tears slid down your cheeks.

The droid started walking again. You followed, wiping your face before your kid could see. The droid stopped and turned around. “Go into this line,” it motioned. You followed the people in front of you. You realized you were maybe fifteen people from the block. You put Lily behind you, as if to protect her from the truth.

Slowly, the line moved forward. You and your kid held hands. The line grew shorter and shorter in front of you. Eventually, you were next. You legs turned to jelly and your heart raced. Lily tugged on your hand. You looked down, fear rising in your gut.

“Can we go together?” She whispered.

“…no… no baby, we have to go separately.” You tried to let go of her hand. She started screaming, her fingers gripping yours with surprising strength. You shushed her, fearing punishment. But she wouldn’t be calmed.

“Get that kid to shut up,” the auctioneer was motioning you onto the block. Lily screamed unintelligibly at him.

Finally the droid from earlier came and separated the two of you. Lily continued to make a scene as you shakily stepped up. There were yelling voices immediately. You kept your gaze down as they vied to buy you.

“Step back,” the droid grabbed your shoulder and yanked as the auctioneer congratulated your new owner. You were pushed into a holding cell. You looked up to see Lily on the block.

She was crying, wiping her face and huffing. Many bidders seemed interested. Your hands found their way to the bars of the cell. Gripping them so hard it hurt, you watched your girl be sold.

She was pulled off the block and rushed into a different cell, across the arena. You tried to watch her from your vantage point. But she disappeared into the crowd. You realized you would never see her again. Pins and needles ravaged your body; you felt you would pass out. Your eyesight became blurry with unshed tears. The auction continued as if nothing had happened.

A loud boom sounded. You ignored it; you were thinking of your girl, hoping that someone kind had her now. You slowly realized that no one else was ignoring the sound. The crowd of slave owners looked around uneasily; the auctioneer stopped and asked his droids to investigate.

The auction picked up with less energy than before as the droids went to the back to suss out the problem. You turned your gaze back to the auction. A man was up on the block now.

A droid flew past you at high speed. It crashed into the auctioneer’s podium, destroying it and knocking the man down. Slavers scattered, yelling in panicked tones. Finally curious, you looked around. Chaos was everywhere. Small explosions were going off. The crowd of buyers pushed towards the exits. Crushing each other, they tried to escape. But the doors didn’t open. They were blocked from the outside. You started to panic. Was this an assassination attempt? Were you and your girl going to die with these losers?

The magnetic lock which kept your cell closed released. The other slaves pulled the door open and dashed out. You slunk out after them, trying to plan a path through the melee to where Lily was. Worried she might be swept away by the crowd, you abandoned logic and ran through the crowd, yelling her name.

When you reached the cell, it was already completely empty. Your mouth fell open. Now what. Frantically, you looked about. Too much was happening. Slaves were killing their new owners, other slavers were killing their own kind in an attempt to get out. You had to find Lily.

You dashed to the broken podium. Climbing up, you cast your gaze about, looking for a small form within the madness. It was as if she was invisible.

The ruckus died down after awhile. Most of the remaining slaves were now focusing on opening the doors. They still would not open. You renewed your search for Lily. You looked in every small place you could find, hoping that she had hidden herself. Nothing.

A metallic ding sounded near the back. The loading doors. You walked to get a good view of what was happening. The large doors lit up, then slowly began to open. Sunlight filtered through the dust. The crowd hesitantly stepped towards the opening. You collectively waited. Nothing happened. The minutes stretched.

A small group hesitantly approached the doors. Nothing. The rest of the crowd seemed to wake up; you all moved towards the doors slowly, cautiously. Inching forward, you looked for Lily. You decided to go to the exit and wait. She would have to pass by there eventually. You executed your plan. Leaning against the wall, you kept yourself alert as your eyes darted through the crowd. Where was she?

The last person you could see left. As far as you could tell, it was only you and the dead in the arena. Fear had been rising in you slowly. Now you were afraid, hands trembling slightly. Where was she? Was she… was she…? You looked at the bodies of the dead. No. No no no.

You ran outside, feeling suffocated. Dropping to your knees in the sand, you cried out desperately. The sun beat down on you, making your exposed skin hot. Starting to sweat, you stood to go back inside to look for Lily. You noticed a weird ship to your left as you stood up. Dusting yourself off absentmindedly, you were curious. It was probably just one of the slavers’ ships, you realized. One of the dead. Your stomach flip flopped.

An armored figure exited the ship, his gait slow and relaxed. You watched, transfixed. He approached, growing larger by the second. When he was several feet away, he stopped abruptly. You still found yourself incapable of moving.

“You’re called Luna?” He asked gruffly. Luna was your stage name at the old club… how did he know that? Astonished, you nodded.

“Come with me,” he turned away from you and started to return to his ship. Suddenly your feet became unglued. You ran after him. “How do you know my name?”

His curt reply made you gasp, “Lily.”

“Where is she? Is she okay?” You exploded into questions.

He turned his head slightly in your direction, “She’s on my ship… we were waiting for you to come out.”

“What?”

He stopped short and turned to you. For a moment, he just stood there, presumably looking at you. Then he spoke, “I found her under some bodies. She’s… okay, aside from that...”

“What’re you gonna do with us?” You stared into his helmet.

“You can spend the night, but after that I will take you to a place of your choosing, within 5 light years.” He nodded at his ship. “Come.”

It was too good to be true. You didn’t budge. “What’s wrong?” he seemed confused.

“You’re just gonna… let us go?” You scoffed.

He nodded, then shrugged, “What else would I do with you?”

You looked at him like he had three heads. He shrugged again, “Okay, uh, wait here. I’ll go get her. Then you can decide what to do.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and started walking again. Suspicious, you trailed behind him. You waited a few feet from his ship as he boarded her, disappearing.

After a few minutes, he emerged. Lily ran past him screaming your real name. You took her up in your arms, sobbing. He slowed his approach and stopped a few feet away again. He waited until the two of you had exhausted yourselves. Finally you held Lily in your arms, and asked, “Now what?”

“Up to you. My offer still stands.”

“Why?” You were wary.

He nodded at Lily. You considered. Where else would you go tonight, anyway? The desert was dangerous. And you had no idea where you were, or how close the nearest settlement was.

“F..fine.” You hesitated for only a moment before following him inside his ship. Your heart beat faster at the sound of the door closing behind you. Then you were in his ship with him.

#boba x reader #boba x you #boba fett x reader #boba fett x f!reader #boba fett x you #boba fett fanfiction #boba fett fic #boba fett x female reader #boba fett & oc #star wars x you #star wars x reader #star wars reader insert #long fic #star wars fanfiction

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daimyosprincess · 1 year

Text

MASTERLIST

Works organized by character ALL WORKS ARE 18+ — MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

BOBA FETT

AN HONEST DAY'S WORK - 9k words —PAIRING: Contractor!Boba Fett x F!Reader —SUMMARY: You have a very special project you want your parents’ contractor, Boba Fett, to work on.

EX LIBRIS - 53.1k words —PAIRING: Professor!Boba Fett x F!Librarian!Reader —SUMMARY: There's much to be learned from the handsome professor Boba Fett, both about yourself and your pleasure.

SANCTUARY - 1.2k words —PAIRING: Boba Fett x Female Character —SUMMARY: Sometimes sanctuary isn’t a place, it’s a person.

THIS TENDER LOVE - 2.2k words —PAIRING: Boba Fett x F!Reader —SUMMARY: When you’re a little nervous about your first time, Boba helps you get in the right headspace.

WORTH THE RISK - 10.8k —PAIRING: Dad's Friend!Boba Fett x F!Reader —SUMMARY: Pushing your luck has its rewards.

WIPS

A THOUSAND WAYS TO SAY YOU - WIP —PAIRING: Boba Fett x F!Reader

BESKAR HEARTS - WIP —PAIRING: Boba Fett x Din Djarin x F!Reader —Snippet #2

SHARP OBJECTS - WIP —PAIRING: Boba Fett x F!Bounty Hunter!Reader (might change this to an OC but I haven't decided yet)

TWIN SUNS - WIP —PAIRING: Boba Fett x F!Reader

THOTS

—Boba likes his girls thicc HCs —Waking Boba up with a blow job (+ Boba waking you up) —Beach!AU —Boba Fett doesn’t realize that he’s down bad for you and then he sees someone flirting with you on Tribute Day

MISC

—How I write Boba's character —Boba falling for a shy, sensitive reader

CAPTAIN REX

SOME REX AND RELAXATION - 3.3k words —PAIRING: Rebels!Captain Rex x F!Reader —SUMMARY: After a hard week, Rex makes it his mission to see that you forget all about it.

COMMANDER CODY

WIPS

EVERYTHING AND MORE - WIP —PAIRING: Commander Cody x F!Reader

CROSSHAIR

WIPS

CROSS MY HEART - WIP —PAIRING: Crosshair x F!Medic!Reader

DIN DJARIN

WIPS

BESKAR HEARTS - WIP —PAIRING: Boba Fett x Din Djarin x F!Reader

FENNEC SHAND

NO MERCY - 802 words —PAIRING: Fennec Shand x F!Reader x Boba Fett —SUMMARY: Fennec Shand is many things, markswoman, assassin, the daimyo’s right hand, but merciful is not one of them. That's why she's the only one Boba Fett trusts to take care of you when he's away.

#zwei writes #fic masterlist #fanfic #star wars fanfic #star wars fanfiction

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lovelessdagger · 2 years

Text

Starlight - Chapter Thirty-One: The Devil Rings His Bell

Pairing: Din Djarin x OC, Din Djarin x OFC

Rating: Mature

Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Canon Divergence, Smut

Warnings: Explicit Language. Horror.. Angst. Suicidal Ideation. Gore. Light Medical Horror. Nonconsensual nonsexual touching. Panic Attacks. PTSD. Everything goes to hell.

Words: 13k

Summary : “There was a point to this, there should’ve been anyways.”

A/N: This chapter is A LOT. I usually advise to read with caution but specifically here

Starlight Masterlist Here

Read Chapter Thirty Here

Read on AO3 Here

Objectively, this isn’t what Senior Officer Horix Kelis signed up for when he joined the Imperial Academy some twenty years ago. Stalking through thick branches with dying embers while being drowned from above. Oxygen tubes connecting from the boxy filter on his back to the front of his helmet does little to mitigate the fumes.

The mission briefing was short, conducted from whatever pseudo base was constructed on whatever Outer Rim scumhole that was chosen for the moment. It’s pointless to keep track of locations anymore, setting up only to relocate hardly a month after. Just another worthless planet filled with worthless natives who hadn’t the decency to learn Basic. Who dressed in animal hide and painted their faces with ash.

He heard his superiors talk the day before, bitterly recalling the memory. Moff Gideon and the Thirteenth Sister specifically requested the second best team. Being chosen was no honor.

It started off as twenty men packed into a cargo hold like a can of Naboo sardines. His personal team consisted of five, they crowded over a glitchy hologram. Prerecorded messaging allowed no questions.

“Your mission is to acquire one asset.” Gideon couldn’t be assed to give the report himself, and Horix assumed this Inquisitor was no better. The voice was the same as other report requests, some female lead on Gideon’s cruiser. “Target is female, estimated height 163, an estimated 25 to 28 years of age. Black hair, grey eyes, brown skin.”

A matching hologram appeared before them, a blue tinted figure. One of his men, Coltin—someone who never had much respect for hierarchy and basic rules—leaned over to him. “I’d fuck her,” he said.

“You’d fuck your sister if she offered,” Netru, his second in command snorts at his other side.

He works with idiots, running his hand over his pale face.

“—accompanied by Mandalorian, Din Djarin.” Another hologram, the man from the rumors of Nevarro. “Master Assassin, Fennec Shand—”

“Ain’t she dead?” Furge muttered.

“—Bounty Hunter, Boba Fett—”

“Isn’t he dead?” Horix found himself saying.

“And an alien.” Ugly, but not the most threatening way to end. “Moff Gideon orders that under no circumstance are the Mandalorian and Child to be harmed. The asset is to be obtained unharmed. Lethal methods are strictly forbidden. Intelligence suggest active harm of any kind will result in your own termination. If captured, Officer Kelis is to inform Moff Gideon via coded signal immediately.”

The cylinder stick pokes from his belt, a single red button protruding from the top. His hand covers it when the others look.

“The asset is invaluable Imperial property, it must be kept in prime condition,” she says. The word strikes them all in different ways. Property. Like the clones who taught them how to shoot blasters as children, or the cards for sabbacc they could buy from the commissary.

Her throat clears through the recording. “I’m sure you are all familiar with the tale of Lord Vader’s daughter—“ They all look to each other, tension in the stuffy room. “Private operatives have located and confirmed this being to be her. The asset shares the same abilities and skill of her father. Perhaps more.”

“This is a fuckin’ suicide mission,” Furge says. “We’re supposed to go after one of them devil wizards?”

Suddenly second best makes sense.

None of them stood a chance, they were never meant to. Another expenditure by the Empire. They weren’t esteemed soldiers from a dwindling lot, they’re as worthless as the rest of the galaxy.

Horix steps in a puddle, wincing at his foot stuck in the mud. He could still have a chance to make it out alive, comm chatter indicated other surges retreating throughout the morning. It’s a tough decision, to leave with his life a coward or leave this life a forgotten sacrifice.

“How are you all holding up?” he asks to the open communication line. “Any updates?”

“Same as they were ten minutes ago.” Coltin. “They already sent and called back the Dark Troopers. Why are we still out here?”

“The Moff specifically requested for us to head this mission, because we’re the best.” Almost. “We’ll stay as long as we have to until it is complete.”

“Reports onboard Gideon’s cruiser said the Inquisitor came down to engage the Mandalorian.” Triemp, the youngest of the group. He never got to properly graduate from whatever academy he came from.

Lothal, Horix thinks. He’s still too skittish, like a frightened kitten.

“Bitch is crazy,” Furge says. “They said we couldn’t do that.”

“Thirteenth Sister can do what she wants. She doesn’t concern us—“

“Wait,” Triemp says. “Wait. I’ve just gotten word—The Mandalorian has been… taken care of?”

“Elaborate.”

“It’s just that. We weren’t the only ones instructed not to harm him. My source says the Sister and Moff Gideon were screaming at another on board.”

“Is he dead?”

“Gideon?”

“No genius, the Mandalorian.”

“Uncertain. If not completely, close to it.”

Netru speaks up, “…The Mandalorian is down?”

“Correct.”

“Have you heard anything about the alien?”

“Acquired by the Inquisitor,” Triemp says, gulping his words. “She’s directly gone against orders.”

“If she’s alone we have to get back to the ship or else we’re fucked.”

“Let’s not be dramatic,” Horix cuts in. “This was the Inquisitors fuck up, not ours. We still have a job to do. There’s no reason for panic.”

“You think they told us to stay away for kicks?” Coltin asks.

“I’m only saying we don’t know why, it’s foolish to assume.”

“She’s Lord Vader’s daughter,” Netru says. “What else do you need to know?”

It is a valid point. He—whether it be fortunate or not—never had the pleasure of meeting Vader. But his paternity isn’t the only story told throughout camps.

“You honestly believe she’s his child?” Horix huffs. “That’s disappointing.”

“Disappointing?”

“Well, if she is his child… they must share more similarities other than abilities.” A chorus of ohs echos. “I always believed Vader looked more like us.”

“I heard the Jedi kid that blew up the Death Star was his too,” Coltin says. “That kid doesn’t look a thing like her.”

“It is possible she is from a different mother,” Triemp says.

“A bastard?”

“Or he is. She is the one Vader kept after all.”

“Kept the wrong one then,” Furge says.

For once, they all agree.

“Focus,” Horix interjects. “We’ll regroup at the ship, figure out a new plan. Netru, what’s your status on location?” On their initial spread they planned on no more than fifty yards of separation. But he’s always been a wanderer.

With no other man speaking, he’s met with static.

“Netru? Come in. Report your location.” The static pops, crinkling. “KT-9248 come in.”

“Net,” Coltin says.

“The idiot must have walked outside of comm bounds. Furge, what’s your status?” Reluctantly, he answers with coordinates. Not too far off, closer to where Netru was meant to be. “Will you find him?”

“On it.” He drops the connection.

“The rest of you—“ Thunder cuts him off, a lightning strike over the mountains. “Get to the ship on your own.”

“What about you?” Triemp asks.

“I have a mission to complete. I’m going to find and report the asset to Moff Gideon.”

A female voice breaks through the line, honeyed and smooth. “That’s bold.”

“Sir?” Triemp says.

“You can contact Gideon?” Then more to herself she says, “But I thought…”

“Who is this? This is a private channel.”

“Dammit,” she mutters under her breath. “Stupid.”

“This is Senior Officer Horix Kelis, KT-7392 of Imperial Corp 7254 of the Galactic Empire. I demand you disclose your identity.”

There’s shuffling, a cough then steady breathing. “KT-9248,” she says, like she were reading it from a manual. “Netru Bolts,” she sighs, “Junior Officer.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s what his arm says.”

“How do you have Bolts?”

“Just his arm,” she corrects. “The rest of him is… here and there.”

“Holy shit,” Coltin says. “It’s fucking her.”

Triemp whispers, shaking, “Lady Vader.”

More breaths come from the end of the line. Spiking chills run up Horix’s skin. Breaking into a sprint , feet snapping twig and splashing in streams. “Back to the ship! Back to the—“

“I don’t know if I like that name.” She’s completely mellow, sounding dazed. “Lady Vader… Sith are given names—” She stops short, and humming enters his ears. “Hello. Which one are you?”

“Furge! Furge get out of there!” Horix shouts.

“Hi Furge,” she says. “I’m—oh, this is a lightsaber—an arm… I couldn’t figure out how to it take off. It’s in poor taste I know, but… yes, it’s his… I only wanted his help,” she snorts, “things got out of hand. Clearly. I won’t hurt you if you help me. I promise.”

The connection turns to static again, the surrounding rain and winds blowing out the mic.

“Sir,” Triemp says.

“Get on the other line, Tri. Contact the remaining, order every man to return to the ship immediately. After that I want you onboard, locked in.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Colt, get off the comm, I’m sending you my coordinates. We’re furtherest out, right now we’re stronger together.”

“Understood.”

The girl’s voice comes in again, more on edge, pointed. “Horix, is it? May I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“Is Furge lying to me?”

“What?”

“He says they took the Child. Is he lying to me?”

Stuttering, Horix answers no. Distant from the rest, a scream to awaken hibernation sounds. Breathing follows. Five inhales, six exhales.

“How many of you are there?”

“Twenty.”

“Eighteen now.” Cold. Missing the sickly sweetness it was coated in just moments ago.

Sick to his stomach he can hardly repeat it. “Eighteen.”

The humming stops, and her voice comes directly from the microphone on Netru’s detached arm. “Officer Kelis?”

He swallows collecting spit. “Yes?”

“You should start running too.”

---

“Wake up Mandalorian. Wake up.”

Groaning to life, every muscle inside of Din tenses and every joint cracks. It starts with ringing in his ears, ending with vision restored to his eyes. His side is prodded by a blunt object, later discovered to be Fennec Shand’s foot.

“Lu…”

“Wrong Fett,” Fennec snorts above him. “I think he has a concussion. Should get checked out.”

He finds Boba, or three Bobas, the world a dizzy mess.

“Where is she?” The Bobas ask.

Din blinks, struggling to focus on the data within his helmet. Heart rate is at an all time high, blood pressure the same, oxygen levels too low. He considers the possibility of being dead, a void filling his mind. “Who?”

“Maker he’s lost it,” Fennec says. “Your girlfriend. Where is she?”

“Girlfriend?”

Concern now etches into Fennec, she crouches, face pinched. “What the fuck happened to you? Your girlfriend,” she says slower. ”Lumina. The one you were going to propose to this morning?”

“What?” The Bobas say.

“There was no good time to tell you.”

“Why was I not consulted first?”

“I don’t think that matters right now.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Later,” she says. “Mandalorian, where is Lumina?”

Din groans again, pants unheard through his modulator. If this is how she feels after her increasingly common fainting spells, well he can’t blame her for getting sick each time.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Where’s the kid?”

The Bobas nod to Fennec. “Search the ship.” Then to Din, “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know,” he says again. “I haven’t seen her.”

“Since when?”

“Since…” He frowns. When did he see her last? She was there last night. This morning before she left on her walk… Din coughs, the sludge of soil uncomfortably wet under him. Nothing comes back to him as a clear picture, fuzzy understandings lingering in his mind.

There’s a fire, a storm… Imperials. She came out of the woods at some point with the Child…

Din blinks, only now noticing wetness on his face, too cold to be blood. It hits him like a ship thrown out of hyperspace.

“Lumina,” he says panicked, sitting up far too quick. He speaks again, surprising himself with the anger it comes with. “That fucking bitch.”

A blaster bolt flies against Din, sparking beskar right over the left side of his chest. Knocked back fully to the ground again, the three Boba’s turn back to one with proximity. His soiled boot keeps Din pinned, blaster and wrist gauntlet pointed to his head.

“What the fuck—” Din gasps.

“Ne shab'rud'ni,” Boba says. “I don’t give a fuck what she did to you. If you ever disrespect her again, you’ll wish she got to you first. Am I understood?”

“Fett!” Fennec stands at the top of the Crest’s ramp, unfazed by the scene. “We have a situation.”

“I’ll say.”

“The Child is missing.”

While Din’s head snaps the best it can to her direction, Boba removes himself, holstering his gun. “What do you mean missing?”

“As in he’s not here.”

“The Jedi took him,” Din says. He tries to stand again, slow, an eye constant on Boba.

“What Jedi?”

“She came with the TIE… had a red one of those laser swords.”

“Fuck.”

“What’s going on?” Fennec asks, jumping off the ship.

“Inquisitors,” Boba says.

“They’re all dead.”

“So are we.” He points to he sky. “And the Empire. And her. We’re all supposed to be dead, none of it matters.”

“But if they’re here then—“

“We’re too late. It’s already happened.” Boba grabs Din by his shoulders, despite the height difference and with significant strength. “Mandalorian, where is she?”

“She left,” he says.

“Left where?”

“I don’t know. She was talking about Gideon and—“ His hand leans against his head. “Fuck.”

“He needs a medic,” Fennec decides, approaching. “Concussion, internal bleeding, who knows what they did to him.”

“Mandalorian,” Boba says.

Din doesn’t mean to snap, or at least he doesn’t think he does. Nothing feels like himself. “What?”

“I need you to tell me everything you remember.”

“She said—“ It’s like he’s filled with static, memories glitching from one thing to another. “She… wanted to talk to him and—I don’t know. I…” He takes a breath, collecting his thoughts with the ground. “I was with her and she was crying and I— we… I had her. She promised she wouldn’t leave anymore. She promised she’d stay.” He looks up. “Then all I wanted was to get away from her. So I took the kid and I left.”

Fennec looks dumbfounded, he’s sure Boba shares the same expression.

“Let me ask you something,” Boba says. “Do you love her?”

“What?”

“You wanted to marry her right? Do you love her?”

“Yes.”

“Wouldn’t you rather she be here then?”

“…No.”

“Why?”

Din sits with himself, silent. He doesn’t have an answer, not one that won’t result in another assault from Boba. He can’t say the thought of her makes him irrationally angry. That he gave her everything, every piece of himself and she still left. Again.

But… he’s the one who left ultimately. He grabbed Grogu, he agreed to it, he knew what it meant, the conditions she set.

Pounding intrudes on his head again, the conflict more painful than the blows from the not Jedi.

“She’s in trouble,” Boba continues. “Do you understand that? We have to find her—”

“My kid is in trouble,” he counters. “She can take care of herself. What I need to worry about is getting him back.”

Boba’s arm sticks out behind him. “Fennec, hand it over.” She places a metal disc, the size of her palm in his. Painted black, it flashes red. “Do you know what this is?”

Din nods. “A tracker.”

“Found it on my ship after you left. Whoever put it there knew we would come for her. All of this was planned. All of it. Do you know what that means?”

He says nothing.

“It means she knew. She knew the Empire was coming.”

“You don’t know that—“

“That girl can sense the energy of a city on the other side of moon if she damn well pleases. She spent her whole life on my ship, you really think she couldn’t tell there was a tracker?” His voice lowers, a whisper with killer instinct. “They want her. You will never understand how valuable she is to them.”

“Why? She’s not special like the kid, she doesn’t have—“

“Abilities? Powers? Never mind everything else, you know she can feel energy, that she hears things we could never. What do you call that? They have your kid and they’re not gone. Why is that?”

“…She said she made a deal with Moff Gideon.” He says this slow, coming to his own realization. “That’s why she wanted me to leave. Said he wouldn’t hurt us, the kid. That he’s scared of her.”

“She knew exactly how this would go. They fucked up Mandalorian. If she finds out they have your child—you’re the only one that can bring her to her senses and stop her.”

“I don’t understand. Stop her from what?”

“From killing herself.”

---

Horix never met with Coltin. He took the girl at her word, sprinting before the last syllable dropped. He doesn’t care about being a coward, all he wants to do was live. Honor be damned. Being exiled, put on trial, discharged. He’d rather all of it.

He found Triemp first. The poor fucking kid, he looked just as scared as he always did. The others he’d rather not remember, though he doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the smell.

There are five left, including him. Could be less and he just hasn’t found them. Coltin is out there still, but Horix doesn’t intend to look for him. He has to get to the ship, fly away, leave the sector, the Outer Rim.

He has to never look back.

It’d be easier if he knew how to get out of the labyrinth. If it weren’t for the fact that he has yet to see the same body twice, he’d be convinced he’s been running in circles.

He has no time, and yet it dares to feel infinite.

Horix sees Coltin first. He’s held against a tree, four feet in the air. His hands grip around his own neck, feet kicking out. Then he sees her. At the base, hand passively raised only to her shoulder. She’s drenched in rain, possibly other fluids he won’t spend time imagining. She has a lightsaber, red, prominent from the rest of them.

“Don’t move!” Horix shouts. His blaster rattles in shaky hands. He switches the setting off of stun. “I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you I swear.”

She listens. He catches how her eyes roll, annoyed, pushing her hair out of her face. The lightsaber turns off, and attaches to her hip. She turns.

“I said don’t move!”

“Officer Kelis?” she asks. “You came.” He could swear she’s relieved, voice like a lullaby. She looks at Coltin, tilting her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t need you anymore.”

Her wrist turns, and so does his neck.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she says, turning to Horix. “I’ve been looking for you. I need your help.”

“You killed him. You fucking killed all of them,” Horix pants. “You’re a monster. You tore them apart—“

“And I apologize for the mess. It could have been cleaner, I got carried away. That doesn’t matter now. I need you to help me, I won’t kill you.”

“No. No! You’re just like him—I’ve heard stories. Of your father—”

“Then you’ve heard about me. You know what they want with me, don’t you? What was your mission objective?”

“I don’t—“

“You’re the one in charge,” she snaps, then breathes. “You should know. What did they tell you to do?”

“Capture you.” He says this shaking, suffocating under his helmet. “To not hurt you. Not hurt the alien. Or the Mando.”

She frowns. She frowns like it were a personal insult. “What do you do after you capture me?”

“I contact Moff Gideon.”

“How?” He fumbles, pulling out the cylinder. His thumb hovers over the red button. “Do you have a rendezvous point?” He nods. “Let’s go then.”

“What?”

“You’re going to turn me in. Contact Gideon, if you can tell him you have me, do it. Then you’ll take me to your point.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to talk to him.” She walks forward, his finger waver on the trigger. “I gave him my terms, he didn’t listen. So you either help me, or I’ll call him myself and you can join your friends. It’s your choice.”

---

Wiping her cheek, Lumina’s hand turns a dripping red, washed down her arm by the rain. Her chest heaves, soaked hair sticking to her skin. Her left hand clenches, nails biting into her palm. She smiles, the closed kind, full of relief.

There was a purpose to this, there should’ve been anyways. She looks to her lightsaber, drawing a scorch mark in the mud. It crackles with the wetness, a putrid smell coming with it.

She looks behind her, the troopers head—Horix—stares at her beyond the helmet. It flew farther from the body than she intended. She used to be better at that.

Decapitations are few and far between these days.

Her lightsaber attaches again to her belt, a breaking twig snapping her head to attention. She grabs the cylinder from his hand, cringing at the loose muscles.

It’s never not disgusting.

She clicks it, listening for the subtle whirling inside. It shouldn’t be too hard. Wait for the hold or TIE to descend from the heavens, make an entrance. Looking at Horix, she briefly considers bringing him as a gift. She decides against this, too tacky.

It’s his fault for not agreeing. All her plans have turned to shit, she should have expected this would join the list. Now she can’t play the prisoner angle. Not that Gideon would have believed it. But she likes having intent, it’s all lost now.

Dammit.

It takes two minutes for a ship to be spotted entering atmosphere, blinking lights closing in by the mountain range.

It’ll do.

Moff Gideon is a shorter man than Lumina expected. He stands by the entrance of a modified cargo shuttle, arms crossed in front of his body. He holds himself like a giant, gaze solid as stone, pointed forward.

The head would’ve been a nice distraction right now, the storm at last fading away for thick humidity. Taking a breath, Lumina pats down her now straight hair, pulling her shirt to not stick to her chest.

It’s important in times like these to make a good impression. To be presentable.

Lumina storms into the clearing, arm out stretched. Gideon slams against the hold before recognition arrives. His body lifts into the air, gasped breath and bulging eyes.

“I warned you what your insolence would cause,” she bites. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that child of yours. If you find such pleasure in direct disobedience and taking mine, just you wait until you see what I can do to yours.”

Words being too strangled to be understood, she releases her hold, just enough.

“It wasn’t me,” he coughs. “I told them not to—“

“Who?”

“The Inquisitors! I can’t control them, they’re like animals—”

Her body stalls before her mind, and she sounds like a little girl. “Inquisitors?”

“They need a leader. A voice to answer to, someone to fear, to show them the way. You—“ he coughs again, ”—they can all be yours.”

The notions tickles something inside of Lumina, hers. Nothing has ever been hers before. Always someone else’s, a temporary possession, a loan. Inquisitors would be useful… if not difficult all the same. They’d only want more power, her position, her favoritism. They’d be overgrown toddlers fighting over a toy. Then again, a toy can be powerful leverage. It’d give them a goal, ambition, meaning.

A reason to obey.

All useful to her, true. She wouldn’t have to bother in gaining their respect, it comes with the name.

Lumina shouldn’t listen to any of it. She knows the ways of Sith better than any living sentient in the galaxy. Then again… what else does she have to lose?

She lowers Gideon, keeping him against the durasteel. “Tell me more.”

“Some were recovered from Project Harvestor, runaways,” he says, face ready to flinch. “Others new followers, lost, greedy. Insubordinate.”

“How did you get them?”

“They found each other, and they found me.”

“Why?”

“Why else? Connection. Common goals. Three of your peers remain. Four including yourself. 324. 306. And 313.” Gideon catches the twitch in her brow, the split second of a dropped facade. It’s his moment to strike and he’d be a fool to not engage. “I would argue 313 is most eager for a reunion.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” He takes a step forward, she takes one back. “You’re spiritual, I’m sure you can find the answer in yourself. In fact, it was 313’s idea to recruit you in the first place. Something about… making good on a promise? Does that ring any bells?”

“Shut up,” she bites.

He takes another step, and she trips on a rock. “You are nothing but a scared little girl. Understand I am offering you the galaxy.”

Her hand shoots forward again, trembling while he’s only that short distance away.

“Hurt me and the Child dies,” he says.

“Where is he?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Gideon—“

“Do you realize how much of my time you’ve wasted playing your little game?” He cups her cheek, ignoring her ragged gasp. His touch is warm, dry. “Look at you,” he mutters. He strains her neck up and to the right. Thumb and middle finger pressing into her jaw. “You’re perfect.”

Spit flies to his face, streaking down his cheek. He shoves her head away, hard enough to throw her to the ground. Mud splatters in her hair on impact.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he says. “I have never wanted to hurt you.” He kneels to her level, gripping her hair to force a stare. “If you only listened to me before. You could have avoided all of this.” Her eyes meet Gideon’s, he stares at her cold, unapologetic. “What would your father say if he saw you now?”

“Do not speak of him,” Lumina mutters. “You have no right.”

“Don’t you want him to be proud of you?”

“Stop it.”

“He chose you for a reason. Everything Lord Vader did was for you, and you threw it away. And now,” he stands, circling her like a vulture. “You’ve thrown that away too. Look at the mess you’ve made. Do you honestly believe you can go back after this? That the Mandalorian, that anyone could ever accept you when,” he waves outwards, “this is what you do? What you are?”

Lumina’s gaze hardens, head shaking.

“Did you think you could change? Take a hand at playing someone else? That is not how this works.” Gideon’s voice turns honeyed as he says, “Wouldn’t you rather be somewhere you’re wanted? Accepted? Where you’d never have to hide again?”

Gideon would make a good Inquisitor, she thinks. He turns into warmth, stopping behind her, kneeling once more. His hand grips her shoulder, the flesh of it bruising her. It’s as if a shadow follows him. It’s an enveloping darkness, pulling her hair behind her shoulders, stroking down her arms. Her back hits his chest, and shakes.

“Look at this place,” Gideon whispers. “You enjoy this.”

She’d prefer to sleep now, an exhaustion filling her bones. The ground is comfortable, softer than when it’s dry. Maybe if she did, she wouldn’t have to wake again.

“If you join me, I will give you everything you ever wanted. How does that sound?”

The shadow strokes her cheek, beckoning the rest of her to follow. It’s a hypnosis, singing to her in the echos of the Force.

The dark side has a way of dominating destiny. Forever a winding path, guiding the hopeless follower into the abyss. Ahsoka may have been wrong about her, about all of this. In thinking there could ever be more to her. Everyone was wrong. She is helpless.

The shadow whispers this in her ear.

Lumina doesn’t think it’s Gideon, non-Force Sensitives rarely have such palpable an aura to them. It can’t be her own either, she’s too friendly with it, too much a part of herself to be this distinct. The shadow is the same as it was this morning, before it all began.

Her hands are still red, darker now.

“Doesn’t it sound nice?” Gideon asks her again, but she can’t hear his voice anymore. It comes from the darkness, gentle still, familiar and old. “It will be like it was always meant to.”

“Yes,” Lumina whispers. Her muscles relax, head drooping forward. The shadow circles to her front and holds her chin up.

“You’ve been wronged,” it says. The shadow touches her again, a shiver flooding her skin. “With me, you can make them finally hear. Don’t you want that?”

She says, “Yes.”

The shadow presses, words hissed. “Yes, what?”

Lumina falls against Gideon’s body, eyelids heavy. “I want Din,” she mumbles, the whiny sort.

“He means nothing,” Gideon says, distinct from the fog. “He only holds you back. I give my allegiance to you, my Lady. ” Her head is light, fumbling to reach her lightsaber. His hand falls on top, a strong grip. “Don’t.”

“Relax,” the shadow urges, and she does.

“What do you get out of it?” Lumina asks.

Gideon’s answer is simple, coming without thought. “You.”

And the shadow responds, “All of you.”

Then Gideon says, “All you have to do, is come with me.”

---

When news first broke about Corellia, Din never thought much about it. It was everyone else in the galaxy that became obsessed. They questioned how a high functioning Imperial base could run in the core worlds, what that meant for the rest of the regions, and the effectiveness of the New Republic.

The location of the base was in plain sight, a presumably abandoned warehouse, tucked in some alley. Pedestrians watched storm troopers walk in and out every day without qualm.

As soon as the first report came out, written by some novice journalist on Coruscant, the whole of Coronet City was put on lockdown. Residents were arrested by the dozens, security footage from every business within two miles was seized for inspection. New Republic guards stood at check point bases on every other street, chain codes became mandatory upon inspection.

No one got in. No one got out.

To the citizens of Corellia, the new occupation meant the Empire never truly left.

The Senate didn’t care, no one did. They cared about image, brushing away their frayed edges behind riot gear and impromptu searches.

Din caught a glimpse of a news broadcast after Greef Karga told him of the incident. Some senator, a princess and former Rebellion leader, was the first to speak up. Spewing nonsense about needing to be strong and how the resolve of the Republic will not falter.

No one ever mentioned how the base was exposed. Only the initial report credited the discovery to the Red Axe Syndicate. No one else spoke of the so called atrocities found inside the warehouse. No one else gave mention to the reported dozens of storm troopers slaughtered like livestock. Not one word of the hazard crew called in to clean it all up.

As far as anyone was concerned, a base was found and promptly ‘dealt with’. End of story. Should they find it, Din wonders how the New Republic will cover up this disaster. If they’d even care.

It makes Corellia look like child’s play.

He can’t all together describe it. If a bomb went off there’d be no disparity to the current scene. Storm troopers aren’t just dead. They’re unrecognizable and thrown about like cheap Life Day decoration. Bodies are broken and bent into inhuman positions. It could be debated if some bodies are still to be considered bodies at all. Or just pieces of it.

“Keep your eyes forward,” Boba tells him, leading ahead. “No use lamenting.”

“I’m not.”

“No use for thought then.”

“…Do you know how this happened?”

“Like I said, thought isn’t helpful right now.”

“What does Lumina have to do with all of this?”

A cargo shuttle enters their eye-line, parked with the oversized droids from earlier acting as guards. “I’d wager that’s Gideon. Hurry up.”

“What does he want with her?”

Boba steps over a torso—just a torso—and ducks under a branch. “If she’s with him, you’ll have to go in alone. There’s no telling how much he knows. If he’s smart, his goal is separation. He’ll tell her anything he has to to get her on his side. If he knows what I fear he does, I won’t risk being the one to cause her turning.”

“And what exactly would he know?”

Boba comes to a full stop, and he turns. “You should consider yourself lucky you’re not interesting enough to have anything to hide. Over time, it devours you.”

---

The cargo hold of deliverance for Moff Gideon stands surrounded by droids larger than man. They wear an imitation of black armor. Red lights acting as eyes scan the area, their heads turn from left to right and back again.

The export door to the shuttle is prompted wide open, the Moff himself paces around the inside. His hands clasp behind his back, cape blowing with every sharp and unnecessary turn he makes.

An officer stands at attention in the doorway to the cockpit. Were it not for his rising chest Din would believe him to be a droid as well.

The inside of Din’s head feels like a steady vibration, his neck twitches. Maybe Fennec was right, a concussion would explain the weight of pounding dread in his mind.

Boba already circled back to camp, were he here Din would have it in his right mind to make him stay instead. What does he care about finding her? The idea of her alone ticks a bomb in his heart.

Boba should be the one here, not him. She’s his child whether he’d be keen to admit it or not. Din has his own to look after, to look for. All she is, is a distraction from the real issue.

She wanted to leave, Din reminds himself. She saw him. He gave her everything and she left. He shouldn’t be here, not for her.

He doesn’t see her until it’s almost too late, turning in the bushes to make an escape.

From the very beginning, the very first day in the mechanic’s hangar on Tatooine, Din Djarin has inexplicably been drawn to the girl. Possessed in a way to consume nothing but her, to live only off her smile and steel eyes. He’s lost himself in her, finding a horrifying discovery that whoever he is, whoever he was before, no longer exists.

She is a curse that has stripped him bare to all his inhibitions and he has so willingly granted this. He should despise her, he wants to. Everything in his head drives his logic to the conclusion that she must be left. To allow her to do whatever it is she does when she runs away. To take the opportunity and leave. Leave her, leave for good. That he would be happier beyond measurable belief.

And Din believes this.

But then he sees her. The same way he’s seen her every morning in the sun and every night in the moon. He can’t help himself anymore than he could on Arkanis, seeing her again. Barely an hour away feels like a lifetime apart.

The universe and all of its gods have guided him to her, and for what reason? What path could be so necessary he must face this constant torment? She holds a part of his soul he never knew was missing.

Try as he might, he can’t leave her.

Not yet.

Not without leaving himself.

Lumina sits in the hold, back to the outside on bent knees, head bowed. Muscles tremble, a constant shiver from the incoming wind. She’s tied up, shoulders forced back, rope digging into her wrists. Moff Gideon paces in circles. He grabs something black at her hips, handing it to a droid.

Gideon raises a hand against her but the strike never hits. Instead he’s frozen inches before contact is made. The droids pull their weaponized arms against her, a unified step forward. All at once Gideon’s hand falls, as do her shoulders.

Din alters the inner mechanics of his helmet, sound readjusting to a new frequency covered in static.

A rush comes over Din, pricking from inside his throat. His muscles turn rigid, his vision almost red. He’s never had a clear grasp on her abilities, they make as much sense as the kids. But if there’s a chance… he may have a plan.

“Fascinating.” The voice comes from Gideon, paused in front of her. “What your peers accomplish with action, you do with thought alone.” He reaches out. “I see why he chose you.”

“I told you don’t touch me,” she mutters, riddled in exhaustion.

“Lumina,” Din says, just louder than a whisper.

Her head lifts like a startled kybuck, turning to the left.

“Lu, can you hear me?”

“Don’t bring him into this,” she whines. “You can’t do that.”

“Who do you speak to?” Gideon asks. “What do you hear?”

“I’m sick,” she whispers, though not as a response to him. “I’m sick. He’s making me sick, none of this is real. None of it matters.“

“Sarad,” Din says. “It’s me.”

She stiffens, looking both directions. “What?”

“Get Dr. Pershing on the line,” Gideon says to the officer. “She needs an immediate evaluation.” The officer nods once, he disappears into the cockpit and Gideon follows.

“Lumina,” Din says again.

She doesn’t waste time. “Where are you?”

“East. Behind the shrubs, twelve degrees to your right.”

“I can’t turn around.”

“But you can feel me. Can’t you?”

It takes a second, but her head nods. “I thought—How are you here?”

“Don’t worry about that.” Din groans, shaking his head as the pounding returns. “I came to bring you—Fuck.”

“You have to leave,” she says. “It’s not safe here.”

“How did Gideon get a hold of you?”

“Din you can’t be here. I mean it. You have to leave, tell Boba I’ll be fine. If Gideon sees you—“

“Can you stand? I’ll distract the droids, you can make a break for it while they aren’t looking.”

“Din—“

“Can you?”

“…Yes.”

“Okay.”

Scared, breathy she asks, “Are you real? How am I talking to you?”

He shrugs. “I have helmet hearing. You have super hearing. It’s convenient.”

She scoffs. “Yeah… yeah it’s you.”

---

Plans, as Din Djarin has long come to find out, are far better in theory than in action. What he expects to happen as soon as he spots his opening—as he aims down the barrel of his pistol, pointed at the exposed mechanics of the droid furthest in the ship—is for the bundle of wires to collapse into a heap of itself.

In time he will learn reality will never match expectations.

The droid doesn’t even stumble in its assigned position, eyes lifting from its harder gaze on Lumina out into the forest. The others follow its direction.

Their march synchronizes like soldiers, filing out the shuttle two by two. Unfortunate, but not impossible. He shoots again, now to the first in line. In their hive mind, they approach him, guns raised.

Shit.

The droids block his view of the ship, but he picks up the sound of shuffling. “If you can run, I suggest you do that now!” His pistol fires, each shot directed and with no impact. “What the hell are these things?”

“More than you can handle. Get the hell out of here before they kill you.”

“What about you?”

“Do you actually want me to go with you?”

The shutdown of his mind is one Din never expects or intends to have happen. All thoughts disappear into an opening abyss. He loses focus of aim, sight, consciousness even. The ability to process the wind, the approaching droids, her words. It all vanishes.

Because he doesn’t. The simple and frankly obvious answer in his mind is no. He never wanted to do any of this, but he can’t say that. Not to her, not here, not in the middle of his failing rescue mission.

“Din?”

He wants his kid. He wants to go back to the Razor Crest and get the hell away from this place.

“Din?”

He wants to get away… from her.

“Din!”

Before he can act, let alone think, a hand of the front droid grips him. He’s lifted by the neck, dangling like a baby tooka from its mothers mouth. Despite his protest and struggle, he’s returned to the ship. Thrown to the ground he lands right in front of her. She hasn’t moved an inch.

Lumina pulls against the ropes that hold her, shuffling the best she can. “Be careful with him!” She barks. He isn’t sure they understand much of anything. “Din? Din, are you okay?”

An automatic response, the display in his visor runs through a heap of diagnostics, scrolling past his vision in orange text. Nothing’s broken, not yet anyways. Head trauma is suggested, whatever that means.

“I think I’m fine,” he mutters. “What—“ He stops short, seeing her. She’s drenched and bloody, red smeared across her cheek, her hands… dried mud caked in the creases of her pants, clumped in her hair. “What happened to you?” Gathering the strength, he rises to his knees. Cupping her face the way he has a thousand times before, his thumb wipes her cheek. “Is this yours? Did Gideon do this to you?”

Her face drains of color, the same emptiness he found in her on Corvus taking her features.

“You can’t be here,” she whispers, pulling away. “You’re not supposed to be here, it’s all wrong.”

“Shh.” He pushes hair from her eyes, leaning forward. “It’ll be okay. We’re together, we’ll find a way out we always do.”

She’s misty, distorted in motionless air. “No, Din, you don’t understand—“

“Gideon took the kid—“

“I know.”

“You know?”

Lumina leans against his helmet, shallow puffs of air fogging his vision. “Din, listen to me. I have to do things my way now, I can’t—I can’t have you mess this up. You have to let me go. You’ve done so much, you have to stop. Okay? You have to stop now.”

“Lu… I don’t know what’s going on. I feel—something happened. I can’t remember anything it’s like… I don’t know. What I do know, is that the kid is gone. Someone took him, I can’t get him back without you—“

“I know,” she mumbles. “That’s why I have to do this.”

“You, promised me Boba Fett.” Gideon stands above them in the doorway. Lumina slides her body in front of Din’s. “What is he doing here?”

“I don’t know,” she says.

“You told me—“

“I know what I said,” she snaps. “I can’t—I can’t control him. I don’t know why or how but nothing I do works.”

“Then what good are you?”

“Plenty. You’ll learn that, but you have to let him go. He doesn’t have anything for you.”

He stares at the Mandalorian, face twisted in a scowl. “I don’t like surprises.”

“Gideon, you have what you want from me,” Lumina says. “That should be enough. Let him leave.”

“You shouldn’t be here, Din Djarin.” Moff Gideon says. “I should have given the order to kill you when I had the chance.”

“That’s your own mistake,” Din retorts. “Whatever she has for you isn’t worth all of this.”

“You have no idea what she’s worth.”

“Destroying an entire moon? Have you taken one look at the damage you’ve caused? Your own men are massacred because of what you’ve done. Does it mean nothing to you?”

To Din’s own surprise, Gideon lights up. “What I’ve done? You don’t honestly believe that I am capable of all of this. What aim do I have in gutting my own forces like fish?”

“What aim did you have in destroying Mandalore? I don’t care what information you want out of her. I came bring her back and that’s what I intend to do.”

Gideon paces around them, the heels of his polished boots click on the floor. Each step heavy with purpose. “She isn’t going anywhere. Not anymore. She will be returned to exactly where she was always meant to be.”

“She doesn’t belong to you.”

“Of course not. Just like her father, she is property of the Empire.”

Beside him, Lumina turns rigid, biting her bottom lip raw.

“CF-318,” Gideon says. “How is he immune?”

The signs are the same as they always are. Her emotions become distant before disappearing completely, her eyes lose herself, her chest heaves, panicked and desperate for air.

Din’s reaction is muscle memory. His arms wrap around Lumina, the touch of his beskar cooling her feverish head. “It’s okay,” he whispers. “You’re okay, just breathe. I’m right here, Lu. It’s okay, don’t listen to him.”

“Lu,” Gideon mocks on his tongue. “Midnight. Gloves. Tracker. Ayy’Numa. Marie. Nebula. Estelle. Ellian. Omani. Atikya. Lu. Why do you insist on hiding who you are?”

She strains herself to speak. “Do not—”

“CF-318. You are Imperial Assset, CF-318F1.” He kneels to her level, squinting. Were it not for the combat droids Din would have his hands around his neck. “I believe I asked you a question. How is Din Djarin immune?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do,” Gideon says. “Tell me. Are you not strong enough?”

“I am.”

“So tell me why.” Snapping leather fingers, the droids form a new position. They circle the trio, guns all aimed… at Din. Before Lumina has a chance to react Gideon grips her arm, pulling her away.

She struggles against him, yanking until the rope burns her skin. “No, no! Gideon!”

“Why has he not listened?”

“I told you!”

“Don’t. Lie.”

“I’m not! Don’t hurt him!“

“Fire on my command. In three. Two—“

“It’s the beskar!” Lumina shouts. The light behind them shatters at its base, glass spilling on the floor. “I can’t get past it, it’s blocks everything! That’s all I know. I promise.”

Gideon, never one to be satisfied, throws Lumina at Din. She crashes into his chest, they almost topple over. “Mandalorians,” he mutters. “You lower yourself with him. Do you realize this?”

“That’s not true,” Lumina says.

“And what do you suppose they’ll say when they’ve realized you’ve broken the first rule of your programming? You have no credibility with him.”

“Lu,” Din says. “What is he talking about?”

Gideon’s expression flickers. “Does he not know?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she mutters.

“Do you have any idea who she is?” Gideon asks. “The power she holds?”

“I don’t care about that, that’s behind her. It’s behind us.”

“Oh but you should,” Gideon laments. “Since the death of her father, she is the rightful heir to the Empire. Hand selected by the Emperor himself to one day rule at his side.”

“What?” Comes in unison from both Din and Lumina.

“That’s not true,” she says.

“Do you deny your inheritance?” Gideon asks.

She says nothing.

“Lumina—“

“Palpatine tried to kill me. He never wanted me, he wanted the other one.”

“The Jedi,” Gideon says.

“He had a choice. It wasn’t me.”

“And yet here you are. Alive. Why do you think that is?”

“My father saved me. He wanted me alive.“

“Do you honestly believe, the Emperor did not know you survived? That he is capable of making mistakes?”

Her tone strikes with hesitancy. “You don’t know him like I do. He is selfish, and greedy, and his arrogance blinds him. I spent my life studying his weaknesses. I know exactly what that man was capable of. Mistakes are high on the list.”

“He sees you as his granddaughter,” Gideon says. “Your return is of his demand. He wants you. He needs you.”

Only now, Lumina falters. Din can’t tell what comes over her. Why her head falls back, why her breathes come from her mouth, or what she stares at on the back wall like she’d seen a demon.

“Stop it,” she whispers. “I don’t want—I don’t want you. Shut. Up.”

“What are you doing to her?”

“Nothing. She’s deranged,” Gideon offers.

“She’s sick. Has been for weeks. You’re making her worse.”

“No. She’s only rediscovering herself, her anger, her loyalties. And you my friend, are the final piece.” He looks at the droids, waving his hand. “Allow Din Djarin to stand.” So he does. ”Follow me.”

Moff Gideon guides him to a wall of screens, he twirls a code cylinder between his fingers. “I believe it’s time you discover the truth, Mandalorian.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your girlfriend.” He snickers from the word, plugging the device into the computers terminal. “I’m afraid, has been harboring a dangerous secret from you.”

Lumina stops talking to herself, short, all at once. “What are you doing?”

On Gideons command, two of the droids haul her off the ground. One grips her arms together, the other keeps its gun to her head.

“What are you showing him?” She pulls at her hold, to no avail. “Gideon let me go. This wasn’t part of the deal! I told you he can’t know about it!“

“What deal?” Din asks, facing her.

“Moff Gideon,” Lumina ignores, to his surprise sounding like a politician. Strong. Powerful. “I command you to stop and release me this instant.”

Display monitors come to life, static and blue. All fill with the same frozen with an image of Lumina. Sat in the Razor Crest, a growing bruise under her left eye.

“I apologize,” Gideon says, regretfully melodramatic. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible.”

On the screen, Lumina comes to life. Rustling plays through speakers before her voice. “Red Axe, Crimson Mission Report,” she says. The date and time follow. Over four months ago. “Current location: Trask. Previous location: Arkanis. Destination is currently uncertain, but I assume somewhere in the Outer Rim. I’ll update when I can. Contact with target has been successful. Relationship with target known as the Mandalorian is—” Lumina, the current version of herself, pulls against the droids. She strains herself shouting Gideon’s name, “—uncertain, and in development. No news of interest to report.” She sighs, hand rubbed over her face. “You know I really fucking hate you for sticking me with him again. I was better on my own. I left for a reason. As soon as you clear me to come back I’m gone.”

The next video plays:

“Current location: Hyperspace. Previous location: Llanic. Destination: Ryloth. Relationship with target…” Smiling, Lumina says, “Good.” Noise rattles in the background, she turns to it. “One second!…Get a better ship and I’ll be faster!” She looks back at the camera, grinning. “Really good. I gotta go, bye Lena!”

The next she dates hours later, bright red marks littering her neck. She pulls her hair in front of her shoulders. “I’m doing my job. You said to get close to him… I am not being disrespectful… no I know I’m not allowed to but… All of it?” Her eyes roll. “Red Axe, Crimson Mission Report…”

The next plays, cut to the middle. “Relationship with target is decreasing and really fucking annoying.”

Then the next. “Relationship with target, satisfactory.”

---

“…Acceptable.”

The videos never end.

“…Stupid.”

They play one right after the other.

“…Fine.”

Din hasn’t said a word.

“…Increasing in my favor.”

It’s hard to tell if he’s breathing at all anymore.

“…The best its ever been. He’s really great—at falling for it, I mean. No I just—it’s pathetic. Naboo is really nice though, it’s the most at home I’ve ever felt… I don’t know, it’s familiar.” The clip stays uncut after this, Lumina nodding, tying up her hair. “Technically I’m not ‘diverging from the mission’. My job was to follow the Mandalorian, I’m still doing that…”

“Turn it off,” she says. “We didn’t agree to this, turn it off!”

“Don’t.” It comes from Din.

No one dares to move.

“…I’m not that horrible,” Lumina says. “I can pretend to not be horrible. Very well, might I add. You know this.”

“Pretend?” he repeats.

“Din, I can explain.”

“This whole time. This whole time you were pretending?”

“No! No, never.”

“He is!” Lumina laughs in the video. “He’s been very… sweet to me, in his own way. And he’s started taking his helmet off. I haven’t seen anything, obviously, but, well it feels important to report that.”

Finally, he looks at her. She can envision his face, every line, every hair with perfect clarity. She wishes she couldn’t.

“You didn’t know her lineage,” Gideon says. “You don’t know her worth, her power. You have no idea what she is capable of. How she,” he points, “alone produced what you’ve seen out there.” His attention returns to the screen. “This is my favorite part.”

“I’m not attached,” Lumina argues. “I do not love the Mandalorian. I will not ever love the Mandalorian. And he certainly does not love me. I am perfectly capable of staying on my mission and completing it. Whatever it is, I can and will do it.”

The montage ends here, glitched and stuck in the middle of her eye roll.

“These are doctored,” Din swallows, “it’s easy enough to do. You have the technology.”

“I ask you this,” Gideon muses. “What benefit do I gain in creating a false narrative? When she excels at spinning her own web? Mandalorian, how well do you really know her, when she has been my payroll from the beginning?”

Din remains stuck on the screen, her broken image. “Tell me he’s lying,” he says. His voice holds no inflection, no emotion to bear vulnerability. He speaks like it were a term of business. Another arrangement between them, agreed upon over a contract. “That’s all I need. Tell me you don’t work for him.” He turns to her. “I promise nothing else you’ve done matters to me. Just tell me those are fake.”

“Din.”

“Tell me.”

Her mouth opens to close again, shaking. “Din—”

He stands in front of her in an instant. He stares at her the same way he did on the Razor Crest. Before it all began, stuck in the cockpit arguing about her return to Coruscant. “Are they real?” He’s venomous, rasped in a growl. “Yes or no.”

Quietly, she responds, “Yes.”

He says the same thing he did then too, “You’re unbelievable.”

“I quit right after Naboo,” she defends in vain. “I never knew it was for Gideon until it was over, I promise. I would never take a job for the Empire, you know that. Lena never told me why I had to follow you, I thought she was getting back at me for Corellia, that it was another punishment or a joke. Din you have to believe me.”

“Why? You said so yourself, you lied about everything. It’s what you do. So why the hell should I believe you on this?”

Lumina has no response to give.

And he says, “I’m done with you.”

Nothing inside her is intact. “What?”

“I’m done. I’m done, Lumina. All of this. Everything that’s happened, everything we’ve done. Everything I’ve done for you. It meant nothing.”

“No, no it meant everything—”

“You lied to me.”

She pulls against the droids, bruising her arms. “You think I wanted to?”

“Trust me you don’t want to know what I think.”

“Relena owned me. If I didn’t do what she wanted I—you know what they did to me. You know what everyone has done to me. I have to listen! I had no where else to go.”

“You had me!” She can’t remember the last time he shouted at her, and she flinches like he were any of the others. “You had me, and you left. That was your choice. I told you then, I’ll tell you now, it’s always been your choice. You left. You went back to that shit hole. You took the job. You work for the Empire. Not Relena. Not Neri. Not your father. You.”

“I told you, I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t know?” he mocks. “Who the fuck else wants anything to do with me Lu?”

“I wasn’t hurting you, I didn’t think it mattered.”

“You’re so fucking stupid.” Din scoffs, shaking his head. She thought there was nothing left inside, that her tears were spent. “Cara was right about you.”

She was wrong.

“Don’t say that—“ she whispers.

“You’re a selfish entitled brat. You can’t stand one second away from yourself to think about who you might hurt. Or you and you just don’t care. The moment anyone tells you anything you break down like a child because you know exactly who you are.”

A dam breaks inside. The light above pops and burns out, her jaw clenched. “Stop it.”

He doesn’t flinch. “Oh I’m sorry your highness, did I offend you?”

“That’s not fair.”

“I’m past being fair.”

“Din—“

He steps to her, like it were instinct with a clenched fist glued to his side. “Say my name one more time.” He shakes his head. “I gave you everything I had. Everything you never got. Not because anyone told me to, because I wanted to. Because I was stupid enough to think you had an ounce of good inside of you. I wanted to marry you. I trusted you with my son—“ He stops. He looks at Moff Gideon whose sly smile only grows.

“Where’s my kid?” Din asks. “Do whatever you want with her, I want my kid.”

Moff Gideon shrugs at the Mandalorian. He’s leaned against the entrance of the cockpit and he shrugs. “Ask her. The attack on you was her idea. I thought we had an agreement you were to be left alone, or else I would’ve done it myself.”

Lumina manages her voice before Din, who whips his head so fast it might actually break. “What?”

“318, now is not the time to be daft,” Gideon says. “The jig is up, you’ve been caught. It’s best to admit it, there’s no going back for you.”

“What did you do?” Din sneers.

“Nothing!” she stutters, a laugh, as panicked as ever coming out. “I would never—I don’t know what he’s talking about. You—You know how much I love him, I would never. He’s my baby too, I wouldn’t—“

“He’s my kid,” Din interrupts. “He’s only my kid, you are nothing to him anymore. Do you understand that? What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

Another light goes out.

Gideon’s tongue clicks the roof of his mouth. “318, I’ve told you I have no use for the Child anymore. Clearly your plan has again failed. I implore you to tell him the truth for once.”

“Shut up!” she snaps.

“Where’s the kid Lumina?”

“I already told you, I don’t know.”

“If you lie to me again I swear— I’m only here because Boba didn’t want to look for you himself,” Din admits. “I didn’t want to be here to begin with. I never came for you, I came for him. What did you do?”

Slow, Lumina’s head turns to Din. Her mouth partially opened, her eyes to match beskar, glare. “You…” she begins. She speaks with deliberate pause, dark from her chest. “You don’t want to look for me.”

“I don’t want to look for you,” he agrees.

“You want the Child.”

And he nods. “I want the Child.”

Huh.

Considering all possibilities… Lumina ultimately decides Gideon is right. There is no going back. She does an awfully good job at ruining herself, its happened again with greater consequence but so what?

What reason does she have to care anymore?

At the end of the day she’s still alive. She still has herself. That’s should be all that matters. And it is.

Tears sting at her eyes, she tries to blink them away but they fall with no regard for herself. For six years she’s had nothing but headaches and nightmares. She isn’t proud, she can’t see herself as a victim. She only is what she is, no matter how horrible that may be.

What other choice does she have?

She sees in Gideon the same thing she’s seen in so many people. In Neri, Sully, Relena. What she saw in the mechanic who homed her on Tatooine. In Omera as her wounds were nursed and her body washed. In Tidhel and her stupid pretentious friends playing dress up in greed. In Petiko before his head left his body.

She almost smiles.

It’s exactly what she saw in Din. Sees in Din. And what Vader saw in her.

Opportunity.

Lumina looks between the Mandalorian and Moff Gideon. She can hear the analog clock tick away further in the ship. She counts the seconds.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven…

At thirteen she nods to Din, her lips pursed. “You think… I… kidnapped my own kid. My child. You think I’m that dumb to take him like this, and not the million times before that I’ve been left alone with him.”

The Mandalorian’s head twitches, and his fist unclenches.

“You, think I’m selfish and entitled and that I’ve been manipulating you from the very beginning. You have to hold yourself back from hitting me.”

Now both his hands turn to fists.

“You hate me,” Lumina says, eyes searching whatever lays beyond the visor. “You actually hate me now. You don’t think I ever loved you.”

“You never did.”

“Yeah? Maybe I didn’t. Then what? You saw this coming.”

“I saw it coming.”

“You knew this would happen. You knew I never loved you. You always knew.”

“I always knew,” he mumbles. “I…”

She instigates, pushing forward. “What else do you think of me Din? Huh? I lied about loving you. So fucking what. Tell me how much you hate me Din. Tell me.”

The answer is instinctual. “You’re evil.”

“I’m evil.” Lumina scoffs, biting her tongue. “I’m evil. I spend my whole life trying to be good enough to be called evil, and you—I have been nothing but good to you. You, have never seen evil in your life,” she snaps like a whip. “Never.”

The hull shakes, the Dark Troopers holding begin expel black smoke from their chests.

“That’s enough!” Gideon barks.

“Evil is letting your kid get murdered because of some blond cunt you don’t know. Evil is blowing up an entire planet because some princess won’t tell you where the Rebels are. Evil, Mandalorian is dying and leaving the only person who loved you, who you conditioned to love you without any closure!” The display monitors shatter, glass flies everywhere. “You want to talk about evil? You wanna call me evil? You don’t know the first thing about evil!”

“Does it make you feel better?” Din asks, as always only having eyes for her. “Hurting people like your dad hurt you? Do you think that’ll make him give a fuck about you?”

“What did you just say?”

“You ever think about why Boba doesn’t want to call you his kid? It’s because you’re psychotic. He hates your dad, and you’re probably just like him.”

Without a second to waste, every source of light in the room flickers on and off. On and off until the bulbs explode one by one. The computers of the ship power down to reboot three times over. The droids at her side collapse.

Lumina feels herself burn.

“Get him out here,” Gideon orders the remaining droids. “Now!”

“Where’s my kid, Lumina?” Dark Troopers grab Din by the arms, forcing him back. “Lumina, where is he?”

“Don’t touch him,” she mutters, pulling at her rope. “Don’t touch him. Gideon! Gideon don’t touch him!”

“Hold her back,” Moff Gideon instructs two others. They do and she is once again helpless.

“Lumina what did you do to the kid?” Din shouts.

“Get rid of him,” Gideon says. They drag him out of the ship, the squad of them with guns raised.

“I said don’t touch him! Din! Din!”

Lumina screams until her throat is raw and the doors shut, trapping her inside. She screams promised threats at Gideon, throwing everything she knows. His mother, his sisters, his daughter, his status. He doesn’t so much as blink.

Not until she starts laughing.

“You stupid fucking cunt. You’re a fucking idiot if you think I’ll ever help you,” she spits. “You were so close… You’re a mistake, Gideon! All of you are the same. You. Fucked. Up.”

“Sedate her,” Gideon says. “Two doses.”

“You’re a coward! I gave you two rules! You think what I did out there was bad? Just you wait until I get my hands on you. You’re going to wish you were dead by the time I’m done with you.”

Lumina screams until a needle pricks her neck, blood running cold. She collapses, and the lights never turn back on.

---

“Where is she?”

The Mandalorian pushes past a questioning Boba Fett without a comment to spare. He limps, shaking out his arm. The droids threw him at a tree, and took off when he hit the earth. Surveying the area, there are less bodies scattered, and he sees Fennec at cliff’s edge wiping her hands.

That’s one way to do it.

“Where’s Adi?” Boba asks again, grabbing his shoulder. He’s stronger than before—or Din’s getting weaker, they’re both reasonable—forcing his entire body to turn on his heel.

It might be a Mandalorian trait, the ability to discern emotion despite the helmet. They both wear theirs, but he can still make out Boba’s tight jaw, his fleeting eyes darting back and forth.

“Who is she?” Din asks, hoarse.

“What?”

“Who the hell is she, Fett?”

“What’s happened?”

Din laughs. Shaking his head he points to where he came. “What happened? What happened is that she’s a maniac and apparently the Emperor’s granddaughter—“

“Who told you that?”

“Did you know?”

Boba shakes his head. “That’s not—she’s not.”

“The heir to the Empire? The chosen one to take over for her father? You’re the one who wants her as an advisor, all that education had to be for something.”

“It was the vision of my employer, I never wanted that for her.“

“Gideon says the Emperor chose her.”

“Impossible. Palpatine never knew her, we made sure of that. We both knew how dangerous it would be if he found out about her.”

“She’s working for Gideon,” Din says. “This whole time she’s been working for Gideon, spying on me. You want to talk about dangerous? Let’s start there.”

“She would never do that, she loves you.”

“I saw the video myself, Fett. She confirmed it!”

“Where is she?”

“She’s with Gideon still, wherever he fucked off to. Hopefully it’s hell.”

“Shit,” Boba spits. He moves from Din, speeding to the Slave I. “Fuck!”

“What’s going on?” Fennec asks. She holds a trooper helmet like it were a toy.

“We have to go,” Boba says. “Ready the ship.”

“Context?”

“Gideon’s taken her too.”

“Unfortunate, but I’m sure she can save herself.”

Boba leans over, whispering. Din can’t make out a word, but Fennec’s expression changes from passive dismissal to real tangible fear.

“You’re certain he’ll find out?” she asks.

“They wouldn’t wipe data like that. One test and she’s caught.”

“Would they tell her?”

Boba shrugs.

“I told you you had to tell her yourself—“

“Now is not the time for a lecture. We have to go. I made a promise to keep her safe, I’m making good on that.”

Fennec motions at Din. “What about him?”

“He’ll come with us.”

“I’m not doing anything that benefits her,” Din says in defense. “I’m going back to my ship. I’m looking for my kid. I’m done with this.”

The moment comes as if on cue, and Din will forever consider himself nothing but a cursed joke of the galaxy. A green bolt of energy blasts from the atmosphere, shooting between the clouds until an explosion ruptures miles away.

In the exact location of the Razor Crest.

“You’re fucking with me,” he says.

“Like I said.” Boba comes from behind, a hand on his shoulder. “You’re coming with us.”

---

Din Djarin is perpetually stuck in a vacuum of space and time where he is forced to watch its continuance with no say of his own.

His body jostles with every movement of Boba Fett’s ship and he has nothing of value or importance to occupy his vision but the rifle belonging to her. Laid against the wall, propped and looming with shadow.

It is shadow.

Everything is shadow.

He’s too reflective to be devoured by famine.

Fennec and Fett are upstairs, talking. Arguing. He can’t hear their exact words and he doesn’t want to. They can talk about him. Of her. Of them. None or all of the above. He’s lost the ability to care for any of it.

The only thing he feels is the weight of whatever he could save from the Razor Crest; two ingots of beskar, the ball Grogu played with, and his spear.

Nothing else remains.

“All I’m saying,” Fennec says. She jumps down to the hull, and Boba follows. “Is we could at least try.”

“No,” Boba replies. “I’m not involving her in this.”

Fennec holds some frame that she waves around haphazardly. “She’s been involved in this.”

“The answer is no. You don’t know for certain if she’s alive, and I won’t allow them to meet like this. We can do this on our own. I said I’ve found her before, I can do it again.”

With an exasperated sigh, Fennec tosses it onto the seat next to him, landing face up. “How do you suggest we get coordinates to Gideon’s cruiser?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“We’re on limited time.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

“Your sister—“

“Meg is the last person I want to talk about right now.”

Meg, or whoever, Din assumes is the girl in the photograph. Young and blonde, sat in the middle of a group of armored men. Each different than the last.

He looks at the photo then to Boba, and back again.

And again.

And a third time for good measure.

Or not so different after all.

“I know someone,” he says. The first he’s spoken since entering the ship. “He can get us coordinates… If we go to Nevarro, I can get the assistance I need to contact him.”

They stare as if he’s grown a head, and Boba nods.

“I’ll reroute,” Fennec offers, and leaves the way she came.

The helmet does nothing to hide his stiff glare and tight jaw. “We’ll need more numbers if we don’t want to die on that cruiser. I know other Mandalorians we can contact on Trask. They can offer assistance.”

“Who?”

“Bo-Katan Kryze. Her gang. She owes me, or… her.”

“She’s met Bo-Katan?”

“You know her?”

“Of her. She’s a reluctant friend of the family. To put it simply.”

“Reluctant?”

“My people aren’t welcomed in most circles. Specifically hers.”

“Is she going to be an issue?”

His head nods to the side. “She might be.” Boba steps back once, then forward, then back again. “I’m sure you have questions, and although it’s not my place to answer them… do know I understand how you feel.”

Din lifts the frame, tilting for examination. “These your people?”

“Some.”

“How many left?”

“Of them? None.”

“Except her.”

To this Fett says nothing.

“Anyone else?” Din asks.

“There might be more of us laying around still. I never kept track of that, it was more her thing.”

“Anyone else?” he asks again.

“I have a nephew,” Boba says after a moment. “And a niece.”

Din nods, slow, careful. “Do you have children of your own?”

“No. She’s the closest I’ll ever get—”

“And you don’t claim her as a foundling?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t want to hear you say that you understand how I feel. I’ve lost my home. My child has been taken from me. I have been lied to, for months. I wanted to marry her this morning and she is the reason all of this happened, and now she may be dead. You do not understand an ounce of how I feel.”

Boba’s squint can be confused for a glare, or maybe it is and they are one and the same. “You blame her for this?”

“She should have told me.”

“And what would that change?”

The snap is as heavy as cut rope, and burns just the same. “I wouldn’t have gotten involved with her to begin with.” His chest aches, and the fire of the forest has moved to rage of grief inside him. “I wouldn’t have trusted her with my child. I would have never looked at her if I knew this would come from it.”

The glare now, is unmistakable. “She didn’t ask for this.”

“Neither did I.”

Din leans while his hands grip the plates of beskar on his thighs. “I’m getting my kid back,” Din says. “And if she’s still alive, you’re getting yours. I don’t care what happens after. That is where it ends for us.”

---

An Imperial Starcrusier drifting through hyperspace with no real urgency, rumbles and creaks. Inside the sterile white room, florescent lighting blinds. A male, appearing middle aged, paces. He wears latex gloves and a lab coat, wire frame glasses perched on his nose. He clicks a recorder in his hand, the mechanics whirling awake.

“Hello. Greetings. This is Doctor Pershing,” he says to the holoscanner opposite him. “Let this be documented as HoloLog Twenty-Seven in the Harvested Project. The first in the category subtitled: CF-318F1. Unfortunately, all known documentation on the subject prior to adolescence has been completely wiped. I will have to begin again. There is a lot of ground to cover, so for simplicity sake, I’ll make this as quick as possible.”

Behind him, a girl lays on an operating table. She’s strapped by all her limbs, completely unconscious. An IV hooks into her arm, wires of an EEG covering her head. Her heart rate projected on a second monitor, oxygen levels on a third.

“While enacting my employment under Imperial remnants to Moff Gideon, it has been my task to properly assess all Force Sensitive assets acquired. Mainly, these have been of the remaining Inquisitors. These were former inductees into Project Harvestor. This one, however, is different.”

He sits in a rolling chair, spinning to see her. “She is quite special. Imperial archives have listed this being as CF-318F1, marked terminated some thirteen years ago. The reason for speciality is that this is the alleged daughter of Lord Vader. Whether it is a genetic relationship or not is unfounded. The Daughter has become a myth in Imperial circles. Legends tell of a child raised and trained in the ways of the Force by the Emperor’s right hand. She has been kept hidden for years. Intellectuals such as myself all believed her to be dead or simply nonexistent. Until now. I am proud to say the forces of Moff Gideon have successfully acquired her for my studies. The question has plagued the minds of my colleagues, myself, and my superiors as to why she was favored, saved, selected. I aim to discover this.”

Releasing one of the girl’s arms, he turns it in examination. “It is completely organic, and appears human. Blood samples indicate an M-Count far exceeding that of the other surviving Inquisitors I have examined.” He snorts, pushing up his glasses. “It really is quite extraordinary,” he says to the camera. “I am currently awaiting the results of a DNA sampling.”

“Ah, it is best I mention now. Data logs from a recovered ship of Lord Vader’s details several times over documents listed under the code 631-120-282-024-618.” Doctor Pershing reads this from a notepad on his lap. “Almost all the information has been redacted, save for the name and one mention of a female. Should this be his child it is not unreasonable to presume the file is on her.”

He ties down her arm again. ”I believe Moff Gideon knows more than he is telling me. He’s instructed perfect preservation of the subject’s—.”

“Doctor.” An Imperial Officer stands in the doorway. He jumps. “Your lab results.” She holds out a data pad. “Moff Gideon wishes to meet with you to discuss your findings. He says you may proceed with any questioning and studies you wish.”

“Ah, thank you,” he stutters. “Yes. Please, tell the Moff I am thankful. I will meet him before days end.” Doctor Pershings walks out and reenters frame, the doors shut behind him.

He gawks at the data pad. “Maker above,” he whispers, grip tight enough to turn knuckles white. “This is… this is marvelous.” He throws the tablet onto his desk, scurrying around the girl. “I can’t believe it.”

He laughs, a loud singular clap to follow.

“More research is needed,” he tells the camera. “Hundreds of hours perhaps. But should my theory prove correct—“ he motions around the body, waving over her core, “—then I am in the presence of the greatest scientific achievement known to man—so far.” He shrugs. “I never thought I would see this come to fruition.”

The lights in the room begin to flicker. Medical equipment powers on and off, the room fills with beeping. The girl begins to move, reanimating limb by limb.

“No no no no,” Doctor Pershings whispers. He grabs a needle, injecting a relaxant into her arm.

She groans, weak with a scratchy throat. “What…” She pants, blinking awake.

“Hello.” He crouches by her head, her eyes lazily blinking and soon blinded by a miniature light. “Have no alarm, I don’t wish to hurt you. I am Doctor Pershing, you are currently in my office. I have waited a very long time to meet something like you. If you don’t mind, I have some questions I’d like to ask.”

---

Chapter Thirty-Two: An Image of Perfection

Taglist: @lexloon @jay-bel @xsadderdazeforeverx @spideysimpossiblegirl @sarahjkl82-blog @annoyinglythoughtfuldestiny

#din djarin fanfiction #Din Djarin x Original Female Character #mandalorian fanfiction #mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin x ofc #din djarin x original character #din djarin x female oc #Din Djarin x oc #Mando x oc #mando x original character #mando x ofc #mando x original female character #Starlight

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imabeautifulbutterfly · 7 months

Text

Once Upon a Time on the Razor Crest

Summary: Hearts shifted

A/N: Hello lovelies,

Did everyone watch the three new episodes for Bad Batch? I was anxious, tears welled up, happy, frustrated. In short, my emotions were all over the place. But I can't wait to see the next episode.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend.

Love oo

Due to the past history of the OC there will be discussions alluding to past domestic abuse, please note that as it could be a trigger for some.

Warnings: physical closeness, grooming horses, scents, brush discussions, Din being adorable. If I miss any warnings, please let me know.

AO3 Link | Words: 1,016 | Previous -> Next

Main Master List | Once Upon a Time on the Razor Crest

THE CRESTWORLD

Chapter Eight

She’d been so focused on Din’s instructions and her own actions, she hadn’t realized how close he’d gotten; at least, not until she turned her head to look at him and then their eyes locked. Suddenly, the world stilled as her eyes slowly took in his features, felt the brush of his breath against her cheek, the woodsy, leather, gun oil scent that filled her nostrils. Her body realized and became all too aware of how close he was - - how his shirt and the warmth from his body brushed against her back, how the heat of his hand seeped into her own as he guided her.

In that moment there was nothing but a rushing hum in my ears, as the blood pushed through my veins without restraint, as my heart started thumping in my chest.

All thoughts, questions, everything just stopped as I looked deep into his warm, kind and chestnut coloured eyes.

I tried to remember the last time someone looked at me with such kindness and warmth, the fact that nothing came straight to my mind caused my heart to lurch.

Time seemed to have lost all meaning in that moment, it was only when Misty shifted and knocked her leash against the barn breaking the weird tension between us, that I finally looked elsewhere.

I cleared my throat, shifting away from him a little, hoping he didn’t think I found him uncomfortable. In reality, it wasn’t him that made me uncomfortable, it was that weird feeling in my heart that sent a tingling sensation down my arms to my hands.

“I think I got it.” I stated as I found my strength once again, now that I wasn’t looking at him or sensing his warmth.

Din cleared his throat, nodding as he rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn’t meant to invade her personal space, or to be so close that he could practically smell the soft, spicy, citrusy, balsamic scent coming off her, it was so different from anything Camilla had ever worn before. Was it her shampoo or was that her body wash? Maybe it was her lotion? Either way, he found himself leaning a little to smell it once again. He dug his nails into his palm, getting him to fight back to reality. He closed his eyes, letting the pain in his hands snap him out of whatever that was, he shifted away from her. He opened his eyes focusing on Misty, grounding himself as he tried to understand what just happened. Why did he just … he shook his head, focusing back on the task at hand.

“Good. Once you finish currying Misty, then we move on to brushing her coat.”

“Are there different brushes for each stage?”

Din shifted his head, “Yes and no. There are different types of horse brush, for example a body brush, great for removing dust, dried sweat from fine coats. Great for improving circulation and evenly distributing natural oils within the coat. Then there’s a dandy brush, used for bushing off mud, dander and grease, ideal for heavy or coarse coats. It’s too harsh for fine coated horses, such as thoroughbreds, and usually used during winter months when coats are thicker. There’s a flick brush, designed to flex and flick away debris, they’re best used after an initial groom, like we are.” He reached over and passed the flick brush to Ann, “There’s two types of flick brushes, one for fine coats and one for coarse coats. I also have a water brush, which is pretty self explanatory, a finishing brush which you use in the final step in the grooming process, used to polish and create an ultra shine. Then you have your grooming mitt, which is a soft fluffy mitt that can be used instead of a finishing brush. Finally, you have what’s called a curry comb, which cleans your brushes, keeps them lasting longer, and keeps them clean causing them to work better. Anyway, for the flick brush, you want to use short flicking motions to brush off the dirt we dislodged. Brush the area we just went over, and remember to avoid the head, mane, tail and lower legs. So begin at the neck and work your way around, following the direction of the hair growth.”

I nodded taking in everything he said, I glanced over my shoulder seeing him turn to walk away, “Where are you going?” The question was out of my mouth before I could even stop it, not sure why I was even caring where he went. It wasn’t any of my business.

“I’m gonna check on Bessie, you mentioned earlier, you thought she was in pain, so I’m gonna go see if she’s alright.” He nodded, tipping his head towards me before heading off to look for Bessie.

It was a while before Din came back, he looked at Misty, eyeing the work I did.

“Great job, now onto the next step.” He directed me to bring over Taika and start the process over with him. By the time we finished lunch had already come and gone, it was almost two in the afternoon. I glanced at my watch and realized he must be just as hungry as I am.

He didn’t know why but just watching her as she rested against the corral while Taika and Misty were grazing, made him realize what Cobb mentioned when he brought her to the ranch. What was it again, ‘You know Ann’s not all that bad, she seems sweet. Easy on the eyes, and has a very enjoyable laugh.’ He couldn’t deny it, she wasn’t all that bad, and yeah she was easy on the eyes. He didn’t find her drop dead gorgeous, but she was quite pretty and very capable. Despite never having worked on a farm before she was very reliable, willing to learn and was always asking questions. In fact, he hadn’t had to wake her up or remind her to have dinner ready for Grogu once. She just sort of fell into place. Kind of like she belonged.

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Main Master List | Once Upon a Time on the Razor Crest

@littlemisspascal @sprout-fics @liadamerondjarin @badbatch-simp24 @spicymcnuggies @lady-ren @firstofficerwiggles @darkangel4121 @discofern @kavecika @monako-jinn-stories @ladykatakuri @avathebestx @theroguesully @furyhellfire66 @carodealmeida @ciramaris @twinkofthedink @dindjarin-mandalorian @tortor-mcgee @sarcasmismyonlydefense24 @chiyo13

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firstofficerwiggles · 2 years

Note

AO3 wrapped!

Respond to this with what you would call the top 5 fanfics you’ve read in 2022. Any genre! Any ship! (Bonus points: if you’re a creator, make this a 5+1 and include your favorite fic you wrote in 2022!)

Then leave this in your friends’ asks too. Let’s give creators one more spotlight before the year ends, and share some of what we’ve enjoyed along the way!

Ok this was not easy because I read some fantastic fics this year because you are so insanely talented. Here is my list:

First Class to Tatooine by @mandosmistress

This is an amazing Din x Female Reader fic that was so perfect to read after Din returned in the Book of Boba Fett. That's the link to the first chapter, but definitely do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.

Sins of the Father by @imabeautifulbutterfly

This is a multi-chapter epic of Din x Female OC who is an absolute badass. It's a great story that will make you cheer, yell, and cry your eyes out. The link is to the masterlist for the fic.

Grogu’s Day at the Beach (not the official title) by @grogusmum

Grogusmum writes the absolute cutest stories ever in Grogu’s voice, and you should absolutely read them right away. Grogu is full of sass and sweetness, and you will adore it!

Deeply Devoted by @wheresarizona

A very touching Din x Female Reader fic that I just adored for its sweetness and passion. If you know me you know I'm a sucker for Din being a sweetheart.

Candy Girl by @lady--kenobi

The very spicy tale of a sex worker and the Coruscant Guard. I have to say before this fic, I really didn't care for Commander Fox at all, but this story made me change my mind. Link is to the Masterlist.

Grogu’s Teacher by me

This fic started as a silly conversation between me and the wonderful @boomtowngirl and then somehow turned into a multi-chapter fic. If you like fluff and pure romance, I hope you enjoy this Din x Female Reader fic 💕

#the mandalorian #din djarin #grogu #the mandalorian fanficition #star wars fanfiction #fic rec list

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galacticwildfire · 1 year

Text

found.

Twenty Five

Pairing: Kenobi!oc x Din Djarin

Summary: Satine and Obi-wan’s daughter fought in the war against the Empire and lost her faith when she lost Mandalore. Until she found him. A lone Mandalorian searching for a Jedi.

Warnings/tags: Trigger warnings for flashbacks: suicide attempt, violence, gunplay, trauma. For the rest of the story: near death, jealousy, violent impulses, threatening, descriptions of ptsd and injuries, mentions of miscarriage, angst angst angst, Din and Lando united against Boba

Word Count: 7.9k

A/N: it gets worse before it gets better but the next chapter is angst to the extreme. I have the proceeding fight between her and Boba written but it would have pushed the chapter to 10k words so expect it in the next one. I wanted to spend some time in Boba's pov exploring the other side of their story from his eyes. Also one scene is very much inspired by the "we don't like him do we" one from ginny and gerogia,

ALSO THAT NEW EPISODE. NOW THAT IS MOTIVATION TO WRITE.

Boba Fett

From the cockpit I can hear the Mandalorian talking to her as if that alone could undo a missile impact. He loves her. Not that I can blame him. Once I was in the same state as him after pulling her out of that rubble after the oxygen in her lungs had been replaced with chemicals, not that she was conscious to see it. Much like now, but something tells me she'll know.

She always does.

Perhaps I said the things to the Mandalorian that I did out of spite, perhaps I respect the man, maybe I want to kill him, maybe it's the fact it was easier to voice the hate in my heart than to look at her dying in another man's arms.

He's terrified, I was as well when I saw the missile impact.

But I was right when I told him she's both too stubborn to die and too hard to kill. A trait the rest of the Jedi didn't share, one I attribute to her sheer spite more than Mandalorian blood, but what keeps me calm is knowing I've seen her perform stranger miracles than surviving a direct hit from a missile.

Fennec and I sit in silence as we enter the system until she finally breaks it.

"You neglected to tell me the woman who had your armour was formerly pregnant with your child."

There is frustration in her voice, almost repulsion, not that I can criticize it when she heard the whole of it. "Was. A long time ago."

She is hardly one to judge, but she does. "That information would have been valuable before engaging."

I scoff, forgetting most aren't familiar with warriors like Kyra "How so?"

"I hadn't accounted for a vengeful Jedi," she says and shakes her head, touching her throat from where Kyra strangled her. Her willingness to use the force to commit violence is something I had not accounted for, but I should have known threatening her would only make her snap.

"Well it seems she is the only one of those left in the galaxy," I say, glad to know at least one of us has not changed.

"We owe them Boba," she says stiffly. "For the child."

"I know," I say quietly. I owe her. If she has claimed this child as hers, whether as a padawan or a foundling, or more likely both, it's my duty to return it to her. "And we will help them if she lets me live long enough."

Physically I know she can kill me, she may be one of the few people still alive who can. I haven't been on the receiving end of an attack from her, not truly at least, but I've seen enough to know what she is capable of, it's only ever been her heart and damned code that's held her back from committing massacres.

I've heard the rumours, that her and Skywalker walked into a room with Vader and the Emperor and only they left alive. I hope she killed them, with Skywalkers strength and her skill they are they only people in the galaxy who could.

I'll never forget the day I stood in that throne room on Mandalore when Viszla challenged her, a hulking man with a full foot on her and still he ended up beaten.

And that was without her Jedi tricks.

"Mando filled the space you left in the guild after the Sarlaac," Fennec warns me, I'd done my research and came to the conclusion that Kyra would only find herself in league with a man who could rival her. "I can assure you that he's just as likely to drop you once she's safe."

"Great," I find myself saying. He's taken my woman and my reputation without even realising it. "He can take what he wants, but there is no other bounty hunter like me. Only me."

"Except for the fact you're in love with the same woman," she says, more frustrated I withheld important information from the mission than anything else. "That you had also neglected to inform me of."

"Fucking the same woman," I correct. "I never said anything about love."

"I'm not deaf," she shortly, no doubt having heard the conversation below. "I thought living with the Tuskans was what made you soft, not her."

"She did," I force myself to admit. "And it got me all but killed."

"Better not make the same mistake twice then," she says and that's the end of the conversation, yet for just a moment I remember what it was like to have Kyra beside me in this cockpit, remembering it all too well. Right from the first time we met, when she paid me to smuggle her to Mandalore after her mothers death, hiding behind a veil and giving no name.

"First time dealing with a bounty hunter?" I asked her, having picked up on the fact she was some aristocrat but I never could have known the Mand'alor herself was sitting beside me.

"Something like that," she answered. "I sat in that Cantina for hours, I approached you because of that armour you wear, those who follow the old ways have a code of honour about them for the most part."

"Then why are you suspicious of me?" I asked her, her body cues obvious enough.

"Because suspicion has kept me alive."

I was almost impressed although cautious when I realised I had a refugee onboard. "Would I be right to assume you aren't quite friends with the Empire?"

"No one is friends with the Empire," she said, and there was a regal yet frustrated tone to her voice that should have alerted me to who she was as it was all too similar to the Duchess Satine's. "We all live under their rule, for some that is more difficult than others."

"We all do what we must to make a living," I told her, just wanting to make my way through the galaxy with some credits in my pocket. "Why make life more difficult for yourself?"

"That's a good question," she said, she was a young woman but spoke with a self righteous wisdom that felt too familiar. "Some of us are born into difficult situations, it's all we know."

"With the wealth you have it can't have been that difficult," I dismissed. "You sure have enough beskar to keep yourself comfortable."

"Blood money," she replied and those words sparked my intrigue.

"What money isn't blood money?" I asked her, but she knew that and still judged it with the true hypocrisy of a Jedi. "Did you forget who you hired?"

"A bounty hunter," she answered simply. "And from the price you charged that man on Tatooine a very good one I suspect, expensive enough for these parts anyways."

"If you've lived your life on Tatooine you would know it is the rate for Bounty Hunters of my experience, it's in the outer rims where blood money runs thick," I said and tilted my head towards her. "Unless that is just another part of your story."

"You doubt I'm Mandalorian," she said and then left me stunned as she spoke in Mando'a. "I am more than most who claim to be."

Oh little did I know just how much until we were entering Mandalore's atmosphere and she was telling me to fly past Imperial ships straight for the palace and I felt like the greatest fool in the galaxy realising I was sitting beside the spawn of a Mandalorian duchess and a Jedi, a Jedi I'd once tried to kill.

She'd kept up her game of disguise all the way from Tatooine until that moment, even after I'd found the bodies of the stormtroopers she'd left on a layover planet the moment I'd let her out of my sight. I'd sat here in this very cockpit dumbfounded at having been blindsided for one of the very few times in my life, that the aristocratic woman I'd agreed to smuggle was a very capable killer and I didn't even know it. That I didn't know I was sitting beside someone who moved like a ghost and shed blood without blinking an eye.

I think that was the very moment I knew I was fucked.

Maker knows I still am and she might not even make it to Cloud City. But I can't afford to think like that, after all she's endured she won't die today. She can't. Not like this.

She's older now, closer to the age I was when I met her, and with age has certainly come both beauty and bitterness. She's no longer a girl shouldering the weight of Mandalore and the Jedi on her shoulders, but a battle scarred woman who has lost more than most could ever fathom. Something I did not understand, not until the murder of the Tuskans. It is easy to blame those with a responsibility until you are the one carrying it, and having failed.

I went to her on Tatooine not just for the armour, I didn't beat Cobb Vanth just for beskar, but for her. That was when I discovered the Mandalorian and knew something had changed.

All those years during the war, from retaking Mandalore after her mother surrendered it to that day on Tatooine, we found our way back to one another. No amount of hate or betrayal could ever change that. Even that last night together no matter how much she hated me it didn't stop her from pulling me into bed.

I tried to convince her to abandon it all, but she wouldn't. Even so, after Cloud City I turned on Vader. She can scoff at me and deny I'd ever draw a blade on him, but I did when he told me he knew she was pregnant when he tortured her but it was too late to undo the damage that had been done. I never knew she'd lost the child then. For months I tried to get back to her until I lured her to Tatooine, expecting her to be half a year or more pregnant and there she stood as I'd last seen her with such rage in her eye that I believed what Vader told me she would do and she let me believe it.

Vader twisted both our minds, and now I know the truth all I feel is shame. Shame that the one good thing in my life, my one chance at a future to be a good man as my father was, I ruined it.

I ruined her.

And yet I can't accept what is right in front of my eyes.

That she loves this strange Mandalorian in a way she did not love me.

All those years of running around the outer rims together so her family would never know about us and now this Mandalorian seems to know them all. That was what told me all I needed to know in my questioning. She loves him, I knew that when I watched her find him bleeding out on Tatooine, but here she suddenly is with a child and a man she'd brought to meet the people she loves most. The two things her and I never had, the two things that were impossible for us despite how close we came to having it.

Everything I wanted for us, the freedom to travel the galaxy with just her and our child, a life together without the war or the Empire or the Rebellion. Just us.

Everything I wanted, everything I spent years fighting for, suddenly she has with another man.

That wounds me more than any words she could ever say.

I would have done anything for it, but she would never abandon the Rebellion for anything, not me, not Mandalore, nothing.

We were in bed together in an inn on a world where no one would know us, it was the unspoken condition of our arrangement following our reunion after Mandalore. We were each others secret.

My arm was around her shoulder, tired smiles on both our faces as I watched her inspect my new blaster. She was warm in my arms, the only soft thing I had in my life.

"It's expensive," she said, despite her insistence that blasters were uncivilised in comparison to a lightsaber she had no problems wielding one.

"I'm expensive," I reminded her, not that she needed it.

"Oh I know," she assured me and it earned a low chuckle. I watched in quiet amusement as she lined the blaster up with a decorative plate on the wall, making blaster sounds with her mouth.

I raised an eyebrow at the display "It sounds a bit more sophisticated than that."

"Yeah alright shut up," she laughed and I reached around to put a hand over hers. She didn't need any instruction with a blaster but I knew she liked it and so did I.

"It's silenced," I told her as I watched her face. "Yet still able to penetrate the thickest of armour. It's a smooth design, not bulky. Perfectly rounded edges."

"Hmm," she hummed as her already naked body warmed and I ran the barrel along her jaw knowing how she liked it, and there was nothing more erotic than watching her face as I fucked her with my blaster. Nothing. She bit back a moan as I ran it over her lips, getting her just how I wanted her as she tilted her chin up towards mine, her eyes fluttering closed as she murmured my name "Boba."

"Princess," I said, liking how she melted with a single touch and tried in vain to get her to leave that damn inn with me when I had her in the only state I could ever get her to beg in "You should come with me for a while, wherever you want to go."

Her eyes opened and that lovestruck look was gone. "You know I can't."

"You can, you just won't." With that she sat up and held the blankets to her chest and I sighed as I tried to bring her back "Kyra-"

"Don't," she said harshly as I broached that one subject that was sorely off limits.

"Is it so wrong to want you with me?" I asked her and pressed my lips to her shoulder. "Would anyone know if you disappeared for a few days..."

"Yes, considering I'm leading an attack in a few days they would," she revealed, always in anger giving more than she would otherwise and sighed "Boba, you know I want to."

"Then what's stopping you?" I asked her, bit by bit trying to get her to see what she was too stubborn to admit. "The rebellion will survive without you."

"If you want me that badly then come with me," she countered, as defiant as ever.

"That would make things more complicated than necessary," I said, by then she'd had to have known what I was doing and who I was working for, how couldn't she when I was running into her rebel friends in the field.

"You're the one making things complicated by hunting down my friends," she finally snapped and I leaned back in defeat knowing it was only a matter of time before she brought up the last altercation. "Fuck Boba, of all the targets you could take-"

"Solo pays the most," I said and the way she shook her head in anger spurred something in me. "Why do you care?"

She said it as if it was obvious, painfully in denial Solo would fuck her if given the chance and she was far too defensive of him for my liking. "Because he's my friend."

I scoffed "Why are you fucking him too?"

Her eyes widened and I knew I'd certainly hit a nerve in the way she slapped me hard without a moment of hesitation and I grabbed her wrists, pinning her down beneath me despite how she struggled and spat out "Fuck you Boba."

"Are you?" I repeated and saw a sick pleasure in her eyes at riling me up how she did despite how deeply the accusation angered her.

"Why would you care if I was?" she countered, and this time it was her who crossed one of our many unspoken lines. "Don't tell me you love me?"

It had been two years since she'd found me in that cantina, since she'd paid me in beskar to take her to Mandalore and had somehow convinced me to stay as her commander. She was arrogant enough not to take no for an answer and for some reason I allowed it. Of all the work I'd taken, being paid to fight for her and then fuck her every night was far from the worst of it.

Until it became more than that.

I never expected to want to stay, I never knew how invested I'd become until she decided to give it all up to return to the rebellion and left Mandalore in the hands of her aunt. Being the daughter of a Jedi and a pacifist the vengeful temper was a surprise I couldn't place, not until I met Bo-Katan Kryze. They both knew that Bo-Katan was everything Kyra could grow to become, while Kyra was everything Bo-Katan could have been.

Bo-Katan had been defending the palace with the darksaber Kyra had handed to her upon pointing her regent whilst Kyra fought on the front lines against Darth Vader and his legion before the bombs came. They both survived, I don't know what words were exchanged but it was enough for Kyra to bring down the ruins of the palace upon herself while her aunt and her Nite Owls lived.

I didn't know I loved her until I pulled her out of that rubble on Mandalore, but I couldn't admit it, not to her. I was Boba Fett and she was an inconvenience, one I found myself indulging in every chance I got.

"Don't be stupid," I said but she looked right through me and I hated it. "I don't like other men touching what's mine."

"Last time I checked I'm not yours, not when the only time I can have you is like this."

"I'd beg to differ."

She pushed against my hold on her but I didn't let up until she said "No I'm not fucking Han you jealous bastard." Maybe I wanted to believe it so I had an out but the moment I released her wrists she grabbed my face and pulled me down between her legs as she told me "I have what I want." Her next words were the closest either of us could come to telling ourselves and each other the truth. "And that's you Boba."

I watched her eyes darken at the feeling of my blaster between her legs and knew I had her as I gave her a single command "Show me."

And even as she sunk down onto the blaster she still believed she was in control, but if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was to take what she wanted.

It was that attitude that put her on the throne of Mandalore but it was her loyalty to the rebellion that lost her it, her misplaced loyalty that put us on opposite sides of this war. For a moment I was more than a bounty hunter, I was the right hand of the Mand'alor, an honourable man. I watched her fight every challenge to her reign, I watched as she tamed the clans who would have overthrown her if they saw a moment of weakness.

That was until she received one call from the Princess of Alderaan and she put the darksaber in her aunt's hands to run off to the rebel base with her battalion of warriors. That was when it fell apart, the screaming match in the empty throne room in the dead of night. All because she was too afraid to lose her so called family, all because she was that vengeance mad after her parents deaths. I understood the thirst for vengeance and would have been by her side to take it with her, but not when she thought vengeance meant returning to the rebellion.

She should have been glad she was born after the fall of the Jedi order, or else she would have been cast out for her insufferable heart. Her one and only weakness.

Mandalore would have withstood the Empire under her rule if not for it. If she'd made decisions without it instead of letting her own stubbornness and vendetta against the Empire leave Mandalore unstable and open to attack. She was always too much like her mother in believing through sheer willpower alone she could save Mandalore and they both lost it. In the end her mother surrendered it to the Empire so it would survive whilst Kyra did it so she could avenge her parents.

Now she's running around the galaxy with a Mandalorian who won't take off his helmet and a kid that was one of Yoda's species without a clue in hell what she's doing.

If I know anything it's that she protects and avenges what she's lost with the fierceness of a true Mandalorian. I left the Mandalorian to die and the kid was taken whilst we had them at blaster point. We enter the planets atmosphere and I know if she doesn't murder me when she wakes up I'll call myself a lucky man.

"Slave I, turn your ship around or be met with force," the air traffic controller says and I just sigh having anticipated no less.

Before I can try to tell them their beloved rebel hero is on board the Mandalorian comes up to the cockpit and buts in to speak into the com.

"This is Din Djarin, tell Lando Calrissian I have Kyra Kenobi on board and she is gravely injured."

There's chatter in the background before being asked "Is Boba Fett on board?"

"Yes but the General needs immediate care or else she will die," he says, sounding how I feel. "Let us land without violence, either Calrissian or Solo will vouch for me."

I can't help but scoff at him being chummy with those two and Fennec gives me a warning look, clearly acquainted with this Din Djarin and not wanting a fight.

"Alright, proceed to land."

And so I land the ship in the same spot where she ran to me upon arriving on Cloud City, not knowing the Empire was already there and it being too late for her to escape.

Perhaps this time I can make things right.

I have to.

Din

The moment the landing dock opens I'm carrying her limp body out of that ship, being met with city guards and finally Calrissian who rushes out.

"What happened?"

"She has internal injuries," I say, knowing how is not urgent right now. "She's barely breathing.

"We've got a bacta tank," he says but just as we rush forward towards the building he comes to a stop, only just taking in the ship and immediately reaches for a blaster "Did he do this to her?"

"No," I say, gathering Calrissian knows their history. "We can deal with him later she needs help now!"

I can't keep the urgent edge from my raised voice, not when she's all but dead and we run inside. I'm cradling her head to my chest to keep it as still as I can as he leads me through the halls until finally we reach a medic bay. Calrissian immediately starts giving orders for the tank to be readied while I strip her of her armour to her underclothes without hesitation, this not being how I'd planned on taking it off when I first saw her walk out of that ship guns blazing in beskar.

Calrissian brings over the harness to hoist her into the tank and the two of us get her inside it, in any other situation I'd cut a man's hand off for touching her in this state of undress but it hardly matters now when she's minutes from death.

"Be careful, her head-" I begin as the nurses secure the breathing apparatus and it's in the way her limp body hangs as she's hoisted inside the tank for a moment I'm sure I'll be sick and I'm bracing myself on the wall, trying to keep myself from collapsing on the spot now she's out of my hands.

"Sir I need to ask you some questions," the doctor says and I struggle to compose myself as he begins "How did she obtain these injuries and how long ago?"

"Direct missile hit around an hour ago," I answer and watch the colour drain from her face. "She- she's a Jedi. The same missile blew my ship to ashes but somehow she survived."

Calrissian's swearing under his breath and nothing feels real as I'm bombarded with more questions he ends up answering.

"Age?"

"Twenty eight."

"Pre-existing health conditions?"

"Severe post traumatic stress," Calrissian answers as I step closer to the glass, putting a hand on it as if I could touch her, feel her pulse no matter how faint to assure myself she's still alive. "Previous head traumas, long term damage to her organs and nervous system from electrocution."

My head snaps around towards him at those words, suddenly finding myself overcome by panic at having not known this whilst she was dying under my watch.

"Force lightning it," he tries to explain but those words don't help. "It doesn't matter how but she's had heart palpitations for years but stopped taking medication for it. She has cognitive processing difficulties, memory loss and disassociation as lasting effects of torture. It's a long list of health conditions but nothing overly out of the ordinary for a war veteran."

Well it's too long for me and I repeat "Lightning?"

"The Emperor," he says and I only tilt my head in confusion. "She hasn't told you about when her and Luke went to kill the Emperor?"

I feel my eyes widen beneath the helmet and I look back at her in pure shock, I knew about Darth Vader but somehow she never mentioned that.

"They killed the emperor?"

"No, technically not but she definitely tried-"

It's then we're interrupted by Boba Fett "She still alive?"

"You can get out!" Calrissian snaps at him and immediately my hand is on my blaster as he appears in the doorway too calm for my liking.

"In the purge she suffered chemical burns to the insides of her lungs and crush wounds," Fett reveals whilst I stand there ashamedly ignorant of this information, knowing none of it aside from the effects of torture. "She suffocated and I had to restart her heart manually before I could get her help, you'll want to keep an eye on her vitals."

"Noted," the doctor says and hesitantly looks between the three of us before asking "Now before we can do a full body scan I need to ask if there is any chance she could be pregnant."

I freeze beneath my armour, utterly still at the possibility that has not occurred to me before now. I don't know how many times I've been inside her in these past weeks, countless, almost every chance we've gotten away from the kid and everytime I was always as deep inside of her as I could have been when I finished. She never mentioned any protection and I never asked despite knowing I should have, perhaps selfishly wanting the consequences of such an act to happen and silently hoping so did she as she always wrapped her legs tight and held me inside of her after we'd both finished.

Now after everything I've learned, that she was once with child... there are so many things we never discussed that we should have, so many things I never knew.

Finally I stammer "Yes- she could be."

Boba Fett stays wisely silent, that is until Calrissian awkwardly steps in and says "She has a birth control chip, it shouldn't be expired."

He doesn't look at me and I don't want him to, having tried to forget what I heard in the cockpit when she spoke to Solo after the attack on Tatooine. I was stressed over Fett coming after us when I'd heard Solo telling her they should let off some steam together, I certainly saw the panic that took hold of her and then the frustration when I asked if I'd have to worry about this one coming after us as well after she took off to hunt Fett down in the night.

She told me the truth about Calrissian with little emotion other than guilt, that he wanted to marry her and she ran away. Something that hadn't surprised me after that night. Although I was more than surprised to see him when I met her family, but quickly realised if she deems him family that is something I have to accept.

And as far as I'm concerned right now he isn't the one I need to worry about.

"Well I'll be damned," Fett says and realise Calrissian can't look at him either. "She let you fuck her after what you did?"

I'm caught off guard, trying to keep an eye on Kyra in the tank to see if she's making any visible improvements, but those words certainly draw me back into the conversation.

"What I did was nothing compared to what you did," Calrissian says but that sparks enough alarm in me that my hand is on my blaster.

"What you did?" I repeat and Calrissian's eyes are on the floor, guilt written across his face.

"Ah, you don't know," Fett says, almost amused.

"I know what you did," I counter and draw my blaster on Fett, Calrissian quickly drawing his own as well. "I know you're the one who betrayed her."

"I couldn't have done anything if Calrissian hadn't betrayed Solo and the others first by inviting Vader into the city to ambush them."

I keep my blaster hand still as Calrissian replies "I never invited him, and if I recall you were the one by his side as they laid siege to the city."

"But not before you'd told Solo they were safe here," Fett argues. "She would have never stepped foot in this city if you hadn't betrayed your old friend first."

"I was there that day Fett, I heard her screaming for you to kill her after you turned her over," Calrissian says, repeating what I know from Kyra to be true. "Don't act innocent."

"Oh I know I'm not innocent," Fett replies. "But neither are you."

"Enough," I say sharply, not having the patience for any more of this and tell Calrissian "Moff Gideon took the child and I need to find a lead. He had to take Kyra out with a missile to stop her from cutting through his troopers and I'll need her with me. How soon will she be awake?"

His face falls and he tells me "I'm sorry, I know what that child means to both of you." He looks at Kyra before saying "I don't know how long it will take, but you got her here in time to save her life that's what matters. As for the kid I'll call in the cavalry and we'll make a plan."

I give a single nod, it will have to be enough for now. It has to be enough to keep me from losing my mind. She trusts her family, and I have to trust they won't let any harm come to her child.

"You should leave," I tell Fett and Calrissian points his blaster at him. "Or she won't be the one to kill you."

"Her and I have business," Fett replies and looks at me as he says "I'd say find me when she wakes but I have no doubt she'll do that herself."

He leaves and Calrissian and I stand there, the doctor stands in the corner of the room with her head down going over the vitals and organising the medical droid to run tests.

"Fett's going to be a problem," I immediately say, not wanting to know what business he has planned.

"He always is," Calrissian warns. "I was there when she found out he was still alive, I broke the news to her and she went straight to Tatooine to kill him so why is he still alive?"

A good question, one I don't want to answer.

"I've learned she likes to draw these things out," I tell myself, I'd settle for watching her torture him over the alternative.

"You going to kill him?" he asks and I have no doubt he wants to almost as much as I do.

"He tries anything I'll take care of it," I answer, my finger itching over the trigger, the only thing stopping me is Kyra. It's her blood to spill not mine, no matter how badly I want to.

But what is truly stopping me as much as it makes me want to kill him where he stands is the thought she doesn't want him dead. That somehow she still loves him.

I'd suspected it from the start when I knew she'd come to Tatooine to kill the man that armour belonged to, with every piece of information she revealed I'd suspected it but it wasn't until that night after the attack when I woke to find her gone I realised it went far deeper than I could have known.

Unfortunately something tells me I'm about to find out just how deep.

Hours later I'm sitting there alone, the doctor out running the test results and from what I can gather she's confused as well as concerned. She should be dead, but after spending this much time with the kid I know these are things no scientist or doctor could understand let alone explain.

All I can do is guard her body as she rests before me suspended in the tank, as unresponsive as she was when I brought her in despite the doctor assuring me her vitals are growing stronger.

Despite knowing she will live nothing has ever felt so dark.

The kid is still gone and nothing will feel real until I have them both in my arms, until I can kiss her and do the one thing I thought I'd have more time to do.

I won't make that mistake again

Calrissian's called Solo to Cloud City since he's in the outer rims, if she's still unconscious by tomorrow morning I can rely on him to get me to Navarro so I can put a team together to get the child back. Time is running out and I need to do it with or without her as much as the thought terrifies me.

I want to keep her safe, I don't want to put her in the field if she isn't able to fight, but she's the best fighter I've got. She was able to cut through those battle droid looking troopers with her lightsaber when our blasters could barely take out the Death Troopers. If we face the ones who took the child I doubt blasters will do the job.

I'd dreamed of seeing her in beskar and it was as much of a sight as I'd imagined it to be if not more, having never seen armour in such a design before but considering her fighting style it makes sense. Seeing her wearing a helmet made me want to get down on my knees as much as I'd anticipated it could.

I just never thought it would be on my knees screaming her name in vain.

I eye her saber sitting beside her armour and take it, having only held it to give it back to her and study the mechanics of it, wisely pointing it away from myself as I activate the ignition and the yellow blade ignites. It's lightweight, making a sound as I move it through the air, easy enough to maneuver so simply but nothing like how I've seen her move it. I can't imagine the years of training required for her to be able to wield it how she does with such deadly precision and mastery.

I disengage it as Calrissian enters the room telling me what I already know "She should be dead but she isn't and the doctors can't explain it."

I find myself repeating Fett's words "She's hard to kill."

"She is," he says and begins "Her and I... that had finished a long time ago, years ago, I only knew about the chip because we'd slept together a few times since then but that was over well before you two met."

While it's assuring to know she isn't still sleeping with him I don't care about that, not now. Now when she isn't in my arms and someone else is waiting for her to wake up.

"How much as she told you about Boba Fett?" he asks me, going where I didn't want to.

"Enough," I answer. She had told me everything important, except for one detail that I've gathered she'd convinced herself wasn't real, or at least tried to force from her memory. "She was pregnant when he betrayed her?"

He gives a stiff nod and lowers his voice "The empire had already garrisoned the city when she arrived. I saw him give her to Vader, saw her screaming for him to kill her and I saw the aftermath." He shakes his head, unable to look at her. "Leia and I found her in the cell after Han was taken away, we'd heard her screaming and trying to break out, there was blood all over the floor and she kept saying to Leia she didn't know."

I feel sick knowing now the true extent of what the Empire did to her and understand now why she's so fiercely sought to protect the child by any means necessary. I now understand her vengeful streak towards the Empire and know when she wakes I'll be by her side as she takes it.

"In all these years we never spoke of it, I think part of her had blocked it out completely," he says, confirming my suspicions. "I never knew her before that day, I only knew who she was after that but Leia told me she was never the same as what she had been before. Leia was the only one who'd known her before the Death Star. I loved her, but I wondered what she would have been like if not for the Empire."

"She told me you bought her a ring," I say and he nods in confirmation and that dark paranoia in the back of my mind from that night she ran haunts me. "She told me Boba Fett was what caused her to run."

"It seemed like it should have worked her and I, but it didn't. I loved her in one way but in these past years it's been in another, as family," he confides in me, not hiding his care for her. "I would have married her but I was never what she wanted or what she needed. Boba Fett was what she wanted and in her own twisted way she still loved him after she struck him down. That was until you and the kid came along." I still at hearing those words from a man who once loved her, words that couldn't be more different from Fetts. "You're what she needs and I know you're what she wants."

"And I need her," I say and it's then I catch movement out of the corner of my eye from the tank. "Kyra?"

We both stand and what was a movement of her fingers quickly turns into kicking and thrashing as she tries to free herself and I'm yelling "Help me get her out!"

Kyra

I stood in the ashes of Mandalore after having escaped Vaders ship. My aunt, the last of my blood, turned her back on me and left me there on my knees.

The world was dead, and so was I.

Cold tears ran down my cheeks beneath the beskar of my helmet. There was not a thought in my mind, only the crushing weight of the darkness. Vader had felt it too as he twisted my mind. Death would have been more merciful, but he would not let me die. No. He wanted to turn me, to make me his apprentice in his final act of vengeance against my father.

Everything was still, a wasteland of the life I'd once had and the girl I'd been.

Vader would come for me again, he was likely already on his way.

For the first time I believed if he finished what he started I would fall to the darkness. That despite my fathers counsel on the strength of those who resist the darkside I was no longer that strong anymore.

And so I slowly removed my helmet in the ultimate act of defiance against the Empire, against Vader. I would not die at his hands like my parents did.

The air was toxic, that much I knew with the first breath and I raised my gauntlet to record one final message knowing Leia would find me. Knowing she was the only person in the galaxy who would understand why I did it.

"Leia," I said, hearing the rawness of my own voice. "I survived the bombings but Mandalore is glass and ashes. There is nothing left." I knew it would break her heart, but she would understand. "Vader won't kill me, he won't stop until I turn and become a monster." My voice broke "I will not let him touch me again." The tears came and I whispered "I love you, and I'm sorry, but I can't let him make me into what he is. I can't live knowing my people are dead because of me. I can't." My voice was a mere whisper, feeling as if I'd broken the sacred vow between us two princesses after watching her survive her own planets destruction and Vaders torture, something I could not do. "I'm so sorry."

I wasn't afraid as I left my helmet in the open so they'd know where I was buried and stepped inside the ruins of the palace, it and I both barely standing. With each step forward I heard my fathers voice telling me to turn around and go to Luke and Leia and that was the first time I cut myself off from the force so all I would hear was silence as I got down on my knees and raised my hands to bring the palace down upon me, channelling the force for long enough I could hear my fathers voice in that final moment.

In the darkness my life flashed before my eyes from the start to an end I'd never seen before and the rubble crushed me, my chest feeling as if it would collapse from its weight and my lungs burned from the inside out. I was all but gone from the world when I heard a ship circling above and then a voice screaming my name as the darkness closed in on me.

"Kyra!"

In my slow death as the last bits of consciousness slipped I fought one final time at the sound of his voice and gasped out with ashes in my burning lungs, choking on the chemicals that replaced any oxygen left in the atmosphere, everything pure agony as I tried to dig myself out of the ruins.

"Kyra!"

But it was not the voice I remembered. No. It's his.

"Din!" I scream finding the strength to truly fight this time. This time my limp body won't be dug out of the ruins as I barely cling to life, this time my hand breaks through the rubble and reaches for his. "Din!"

"I've got you," he says as he grasps my hand, pulling me from the darkness. "You're safe."

I'm gasping for air as I come to, finding myself weighed down until I'm pulled free, my body falling against hard familiar beskar. "I've got you, I've got you cyar'ika."

"Din?" I gasp out and cling to him as he clutches me in his arms, dripping and shaking with no comprehension of where I am, only that I'm with him. That I'm safe. "Din."

He cradles my head, his own hands shaking as he pulls a blanket around me and I look up at him, hardly hearing Lando leaving the room yelling for someone to contact Leia until the door slams shut and I don't understand the fear, the pure devastation that consumes him.

"Din?" I whisper, my head spinning as I try to make sense of where I am and what's happened, but I don't even have a moment to think before he's pulled his helmet off and his lips are on mine, hard and desperate as I taste tears.

I'm frozen in bewilderment until he pulls away and orders "Open your eyes."

The request leaves me shaking my head, knowing something isn't right. "What-"

"Please," he whispers so heartbreakingly that I have no choice but to obey and my eyes open to look upon his face for the first time, finding beautiful brown tearful eyes and reach for his face wondering if this too is a dream. "Cyar'ika."

In my dreams he'd smile not weep, and I'm too overwhelmed by his own agony to truly take him in as he deserves to be. In my dreams I'd kiss him and tell him he's beautiful and mine and that I adore him. But in this moment all I feel is fear.

In this moment nothing feels real.

"Din?" I breathe, trembling as I search his eyes and my heart stops knowing only one thing could do this to him. "Where's Grogu?"

He shakes his head and pulls me to him, hand buried in my hair with my face pressed into the beskar of his chest as he quakes "He's gone, they took him."

Those words all but convince me this is a nightmare and suddenly I'm ten years old again, screaming as I was stolen from outside the palace walls of Mandalore except this time I'm feeling my own fathers horror at his child being taken from him.

Pure devastation washes over me as he clutches me tight and my shaking hands come to touch his beskar and yet I feel nothing as my fingertips run over what should be cold and know this can't be real.

But with the sound of a ship flying past it comes back to me in flashes.

Slave I.

Boba.

The child.

The Empire.

The missile.

My body jolts as I step out of Din's embrace, hyperventilating while I search for my saber, my armour, until I find them both nearby.

"Kyra," I hear Din say but the words echo around me, nothing is real. Not him, not me, nothing. Nothing but the cold rage that overcomes me. "My love."

"No," I whisper, my trembling hands moving to arm myself. "No-"

"We're going to get him back," he tells me as I struggle to even hold my armour with the feeling in my hands all but gone. "Cyar'ika-"

He turns me back to him and I look upon his face with cold tears running down my cheeks and he takes my hands in his, bringing them to his lips as I stand there a trembling mess, unable to remember how I got here. Unable to remember anything but flashes.

"We're getting him back," I grit out, looking into the eyes of the man I love as I swear to him "We're taking our son back, now help me with my armour."

He does, but not before kissing my forehead, the weight of what he's done unable to truly sink into either of us in this state and I pull his lips to mine, tasting his tears and mine both before the sound of footsteps has him pulling his helmet back on and helping me dress myself in my armour.

He's pulling my sleeves up and securing my weapons belt when I sense Lando and blink in confusion, it's only then as I truly look around I realise where I am.

Cloud City. Din must have brought me here knowing I'd be safe with Lando.

"Are you alright?" he asks me as he rushes in, speaking too fast for me to comprehend. "Leia knows you're here and the Falcon's just arrived." Still I struggle to comprehend the words being spoken to me until he says "Boba Fett is still here."

Boba.

Still all I remember are flashes, guns blazing and threats made until one sticks.

"I can kill the kid, like you killed our son."

He did this.

And he's going to die for it.

#din djarin #din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandolarian #the mandalorian x oc #din djarin x oc #din djarin x original character #wildfirewildflower #the mandalorian x original character #Din djarin fanfic #the mandalorian fanfic #found.#din djarin x female oc #boba fett x oc

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sroop · 1 year

Text

guided (final)

He should tell her, he knows. All those nights laid alone after she'd left imagining everything he wanted to tell her.

Pairing: Din Djarin x F!OC

Summary: Din loses his son and his Creed, and took it out on Reyza. Now they're reunited on Tatooine.

Warnings/Notes: smidge of suggestiveness, a little angst. Also, Fennec Shand was part of Polaris in this series!

For some context, this takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the Mandalorian and during The Book of Boba Fett's season one, when Din helps out on Tatooine. Also, Mandalorians can only marry non-Mandalorians if they become Mandalorian (from what I gather from my research), and the OC and Din have been together unofficially for some time before this.

A/N: I've been writing the guided series for a bit now, and it was so much fun I decided to rework some of the details and characters! The other mini chapters I've been posting will stay up, but aren't what is necessarily "canon" in this new updated version (i'll change their titles to avoid any confusion). Anyway, this is the first chapter I'm posting, but I won't be posting chronologically because I just prefer to write jumping all over the place. Hope someone out there likes it because I really like writing this!

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Din tries not to jolt upright in his bed when she knocks on his door, searching for permission to enter the room he'd been given. He hangs himself casually over the pillows instead, propped up languidly, grunting an affirmative. He wants to look laidback, like he doesn't care. He didn't want her to know he was starting to wonder if it was normal for his heart to beat so quickly, for his hands to shake.

"Hey, tin man," Reyza calls softly, teasingly. The old nickname feels like balm on his bad leg, easing over the burn like he was a young, invincible man again. He smiles from behind his mask at her.

Dank farrik. Why pretend?

He straightens himself and lifts the corner of his blanket, opening his arms to invite her into him, like she deserves. Din hopes she knocks some sense into him through his mask. It'd been so long since he'd last seen her like this, so long since he'd gotten the chance to apologize for all the things he'd done and said. He should tell her, he knows. All those nights laid alone after she'd left imagining everything he wanted to tell her. All the apologies he'd rehearsed, but also the little things. Murmuring how his day went into his pillow, pretending she was there.

Instead, he settles on, "Are you happy here?" Because he wouldn't bother if she was. If this was what made Reyza happy, living on Tatooine in a palace with her guild sister, then he'd leave it be. He'd keep whispering to his pillow than to her.

But Reyza smiles up at him so brightly that he questions if he even has the resolve to do that. She's shaking her head, stroking a hand down his shoulder.

"What? No what've you been up to? How've you been?" she teases. She's always teasing, Din laments without any real complaint, always trying to push his buttons. He runs a thumb over her cheek. It's smooth.

"What've you been up to? How've you been?" he echos softly.

His room is dark, and the only light comes from the three moons outside, filtered through a gauzy curtain. It's still stifling hot despite nightfall, and his gaze falls to the rest of Reyza, folded carefully under herself so she could sit with him in bed. The closeness of them, the still air, and the dark. It reminds him a little of the small, secret tenderness in his bunk on the late Razor Crest. Familiar.

Her silence feels a little oppressive though, and Din shifts uncomfortably, trying to get a better look at her face to gauge whether he'd done something wrong. She knows and squeezes his hand.

"Thinking about you, mostly," she finally says, and it cracks whatever composure Din had left.

"Me too, cyare," he groans, closing the distance between them easily. They tumble to bed and Din cages her in between his arms, resting against her forehead. "Been thinking about everything. Can't stop thinking about it."

She pulls at the stray hairs peeking out from under his helmet.

"I'll bet. You haven't even cut this," she says. Din shrugs, pulling her closer still. The apology is right there, in his throat waiting to crawl its pathetic way out and spill all the sad things he's done to try and stave off the sheer loneliness he'd felt when she'd left. But he keeps it still. He's still waiting to hear whether she's been doing better without him. He gulps down his fear that maybe she has been.

"So, you happy here? On Tatooine?" he asks.

Reyza sighs quietly, running soothing fingers through the hair she can reach and down his neck in comforting patterns. Her hands go everywhere. They're smoothing over his shoulders, tracing the figure of his arms, massaging the knots in his back. Please, please, please, Din thinks. Please don't do this to let me down easier.

He can hear her heart, beating as fast as his, now that his head is on her chest.

"I'm ok. Tatooine is nice in its own way, but I miss you. I miss..."

"Grogu," Din supplies gently as his heart soars selfishly. The name still feels a little foreign to him, and he can tell from the way Reyza's lips quirk that she feels the same way.

But there's no time to think about that. She misses him, he misses her, he's starting to think this might all work out for them. That is, if she can forgive him. Din turns his attention back to the words he'd been practicing for months before, feeling both horrifyingly unprepared, yet pathetically over-prepared all at the same time. But the look on her face is soft, and nonjudgemental.

Din lifts himself, dragging the helmet off slowly.

The warm air on his cheeks feels cool, the result of always sweating and being covered head to toe in beskar. He can feel the way Reyza jerks back, hands flying to her eyes to respect a Creed he didn't even have a right to anymore. The way Din figures it, he was an apostate already. He may as well say what he needed to say face to face, and part of him wants her to see and know him fully. He needs her to look at what she may, potentially, if he's lucky, choose as her forever.

"Look," he says, guiding her hands from her eyes. "It's ok."

At his reassurance, Reyza opens her eyes and devours him. It's her first time. He's older than she expects, and the streaks of grey in his tangled, wavy hair show it. As expected, there are worry lines everywhere and Reyza smiles at that. Of course he does, the way he gets himself tied up into knots. She lifts a finger to the etch between his brows, the drag of where his cheek and frown meet, tracing and memorizing each. Then she goes to the bend in his nose, the unexpected mustache over his lip, the heavy brows and matching eyes. Those eyes, as lost as she'd known they'd be. As vulnerable and unguarded as she would ever see them. She puts both hands to his cheeks and leans in to brush her lips across his forehead.

"Beautiful," she murmurs without moving her lips away. When she does draw away, it's just to look again. And she repeats the word over and over again, breathlessly, until Din begins to smile crookedly.

"When we had to let go of Grogu, I felt like all I had left was you and whatever was left of my Creed, and then I lost that too." Reyza furrows her brows and shifts her hands to his shoulders at his voice, deeper and richer without the modulator in place. "I don't know why I said all those things," Din admits, closing his hands over where Reyza's lay. "I just know that I did, and that I was wrong for it. I'm sorry."

"You said I could never be anything to you. Because I'm not Mandalorian," Reyza reminds him, turning cold suddenly. Din gulps and reaches for her cheek.

"I shouldn't have, because you mean more to me than any marriage vow could have made you, cyare. I shouldn't have said any of it." He exhales slow and long when he reaches for Reyza and she goes with him happily. She mouths at his jaw and he sucks in a breath. "Reyza, wait, I want you to hear this," he says.

"Go on." Maker blast her smile, always the same devil-may-care smirk.

"I want you to be with me always, for as long as you want to be with me. And I'll give you whatever it is you need to believe that." He swallows thickly. "I've taken off the helmet. My covert has disowned me. If you want, we can be husband and wife." He looks away and quickly repeats, "If you want."

Reyza pauses, smile gone, lips parted.

"No, Din."

The disappointment crushes them both physically, pitching towards each other in their fall. Din desperately shoves aside the sting in his chest. But Reyza holds onto him still.

She tilts his face until they're looking at each other again, and Din can't help but sigh a little at the color of her eyes so close to him. They're almost a blur, between the darkness and the wetness forming over his vision.

"You're a Mandalorian. You have always been a Mandalorian, and you always will be no matter what anyone says." Reyza says this with such conviction, it sends chills up his spine. "We'll find a way for them to accept you again, so be it, but you can't just... You can't offer this to me."

"Why not?" Din rasps. "I want to."

"Sooner or later, it'd break you. If you do this, you'll be betraying a part of your Creed and don't even try saying it's ok. You know it's still important to you." That much was true. Din could say he was an apostate a hundred times, and still feel Mandalorian at his core, still feel the prickling little voice in his head that told him that it was possible, that the living waters could still exist and cleanse him.

Reyza wipes the pad of her thumb against a forming tear at the edge of his eye, pecking the other away. She relishes the way Din's sad chuckle rumbles against her.

"I want to do right by you," he finally says.

Reyza shrugs and it hurts his heart how resigned she looks.

"I want to love you." She drives a finger into his unarmored chest to punctuate the sentence. "Not love you for a few years until you resent me for making you give up your Creed. Not even love you forever knowing you'll never really rest until you're redeemed."

It's hard, but it's the truth, and somehow Din loves her all the more for it. He pets her back as her own tears bubble up, like he was soothing a child.

"Cyar'ika," he murmurs as they embrace. "Forgive me."

She squeezes her tears onto her cheeks and shakes her head, wrapping herself around him.

"I forgave you the night I left," she weeps. "For better or worse."

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elenaaadaniels · 2 years

Text

Chapter Eighteen: Crossed Lines

part 19

___________________________________ Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide? Like a scared little boy. I looked into your eyes. Thought I knew you for a minute, now I'm not so sure.

- 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 & 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘉𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘵 ___________________________________

Nadia woke up with Din's face in her hair and his legs tangled with hers. His slow breathing tickled the nape of her neck and his arm is heavy around her middle, holding her close. It's amazed her how he manages to hold her so tight even when he's sleeping, but she wasn't going to complain. She felt protected. So protected in a long time that she never wanted to not feel like this again. The low hum of the ship threatened to lull her back to sleep, but she couldn't seem to want to now. Her brain was too active on the activities from the previous night.

He kissed her.

Din had kissed Nadia and Nadia had kissed Din. Butterflies grew in her stomach at the memories as she nestled further into Din's embrace, relishing in the sleepy way he shifted to press his face to her neck. Nadia couldn't help, but wonder how they ended up like this. Months ago, she thought her presence annoyed Din to his very core, but last night he saved her life and kissed her. Her hand slid down her body until it rested over Din's, the curves of his knuckles under her fingers, so warm and so strong and so familiar.

She had feelings for Din for what felt like forever now. Buried them deep in her heart knowing he would never feel the same and it bothered her that she still did not know. Sure, he kissed her and warmed her body, but did it mean something? For the past months they had been together did he dream about her like she did of him? Had he been wanting something to happen between them to get where they are now? The alarms outside of the ship caused both Nadia and Din to sit up in alarm. Nadia could feel the blanket tussle around them and squeezed her eyes shut.

" My eyes are closed."

" My helmets on." He called out already having the small hatch open for them to get out.

With the light of the main hull, she could see he truly did have his helmet on, but turned away to the child's quarters knowing the noise had to wake him up too. She pressed the small button smiling at the sight of the child rubbing the sleep out of his big brown eyes.

" Morning little guy." She greeted kissing the top of his head before balancing him on one hip and climbing the ladder with the other.

" Looks like we made it." Din spoke hearing the two of them come into the cockpit.

Nadia frowned in amazement," That soon?" She questioned.

" We...really slept in." He said in a monotone voice.

She caught it instantly, her stomach turning as he mind immediately thought of the worst.

" You should get ready."

" O-okay." She stumbled quickly turning around to deal with her emotions alone.

She gripped the ladder tightly noticing how shaky they were as she climbed down trying to think of everything she did wrong. Accidentally falling into an ice river was one thing, but now that she was in better health, was he upset with her? She shook her head going to her bag to get a change of clothes. There was no way he would be upset. She had saved his life before too. What if he regretted the kiss? The thought made her stop all together. Tears threatened to leave her eyes, but she couldn't let it out.

If he did regret it, there was nothing she could do. She knew what she signed up for when she met him. He was a Mandalorian. A lone ranger that simply followed his code and fellow people. They were just friends. She threw her bag to the corner going into the washroom to get change almost begging her mind to think of something else when louder alarms sounded.

" Nadia, come up!"

Already dressed, she sprinted out of the washroom and up the ladder feeling under her feet, the ship was rattling in noises that couldn't be good.

" What's wrong?"

" Dank farrik! The landing array isn't responding. Without the guidance system, it'll be a manual re-entry. It might get choppy. Once we're through the atmosphere, there should be enough fuel to slow down." He whispered towards the end quietly, however, she still heard it." If we don't burn to a crisp."

She frowned in fear," What?"

" Nothing." He quickly spoke.

She gulped at the danger they were getting themselves into turning towards the child and double checking he was buckled before doing the same to herself. The Razor Crest flew towards the planet entering it's atmosphere in a speed that made the whole ship glow in orange from the heat.

" Nadia, come up here." He ordered causing her to quickly unbuckle her seatbelt." I need your hands! This lever needs to stay back. Can you do that?"

" Yeah." She promised giving him a nod.

" I know you can." He mumbled looking back forward." Keep it steady. Here we go."

The Razor crest continued to plummet and right when Nadia thought it couldn't take any more of the heat, the dreary clouds of Trask came into view with it's ports and housing down below.

" Razor Crest, this is Trask flight control. Please reduce your speed to port protocol."

" I'm trying my best here. Engage reverse thrusters." He called back turning to Nadia for a brief second." Brace! Hold on."

" Razor Crest, do you copy? You have to reduce speed."

" Almost there, almost there."

" Razor Crest, do you copy? Razor Crest, you're coming in too fast. You have to re..."

Din had enough of it quickly turning off communication before using the brakers to slow the Crest down. Nadia winced waiting for the harsh crash only it never came given Din hovered just in time.

" Here we go. Nice and easy."

She laughed with a nod," That wasn't so-"

Her words were cut in seconds when the ship had crashed to the side causing all of them to fall over sinking down to the port. Nadia rubbed her shoulder before noticing half their windshield was under water.

" We're sinking."

Din nodded going on coms," Can I get a claw to take our ship out?"

" Copy that Razor Crest."

The crane slowly moved over to their ship before grabbing it from the back causing all three to yet again tumble around. Unlike Din and the child, Nadia was not buckled to a seat and tried to keep balance only to fall onto Din's lap. He held onto her waiting for the crane to finally place them on solid ground before turning back to her.

" Are you okay?"

" Yeah." She chuckled, but it was soon wiped from her face when he almost shoved her off his lap and already heading towards the ladder." Are you okay?"

He didn't answer and that kill her. She tried to place the pieces together, but nothing was making sense on why he was being this way towards her except one thing. He regretted everything that happened. The thought made her sick. If they weren't in the situation they were in right now, she could double over and throw up sick. She balled her fist to express some of the nerves she was feeling before following after him and grabbing the child.

Outside, Trask was a gloomy planet with blankets of clouds covering the sky and a grayish haze over the place. The only thing Nadia can make of it was how it was a trading planet. The ports were almost filled to the brim and those not trading on boats or ships were trading on little markets.

" So, how can I help you?"

" Can you fix it?" Din questioned the repairman.

" Fix it?" The Calmari asked baffled." Nah. But I can make it fly."

" Do what you can." Din spoke dropping some credits into his hands before leading the way to find the family.

Nadia looked more into the crowd of people that surrounded the ports remembering Peli saying the egg like family were to the frog species. She almost gave up until she seen from the corner of her eye a woman and man frog like creature glancing around the place like she was holding each other closely.

" I think I found them." She said waving at the couple with a smile.

The couple knew instantly, gasping in a cheer of happiness while racing towards her. She couldn't fight the smile from her face slowly walking over and handing over the egg container seeing the proud parents practically jump over their success.

" I know you're hungry." Din spoke causing her to turn seeing the child whine up at his father." We'll get you something to eat."

The father of the eggs quickly got up with a smile shaking Din's hand vigorously while going on in his language how much he appreciated him.

" He's thanking you."

Din frowned," You know what he's saying?"

" Had a couple of creatures like this in Arvala."

Din nodded turning back to the creature," You're welcome. I was told you could lead me to others of my kind."

The frog spoke again in his language while Nadia jogged it down getting the basics.

" He said in The inn over there, the workers know about the Mandalorian more than he does."

Din nodded again walking forward never thanking Nadia for the translation. The fear crawled at her body once again, but she pushed it away walking into the Inn. Inside the Inn was much warmer than outside or maybe Nadia was still warming her body up. The frog creature pointed to the owner, who waved back already expecting them to arrive.

"Thank you." Din bidded the creatures already heading to a empty table for the three of them.

" I'm starving." Nadia mumbled taking a seat next to the child and petting his little head.

" What can I get you?" The owner questioned.

" Nothing for me. A bowl of chowder for my friend." Din answered looking straight ahead never acknowledging Nadia.

She cleared her throat," I'll take the potato soup."

The owner nodded his head turning back to Din," These seats are scarce, buddy." He sassed." Everyone seated needs to eat."

" I can buy something else. Information." Din hinted." Have you seen others that look like me?"

The owner glanced around a bit seeing most people were eating to notice the conversation, but for extra measure, grabbed the hose and pour the chowder to make some noise.

" Others with beskar have been through here." He answered.

" Who can take me to them?"

" I know someone who might help." The owner spoke walking off to get that exact person.

With the owner gone, Nadia knew it was her time and turned to Din ready to fire out questions that were killing her inside.

" Did I do something wrong?" Nadia asked, her voice cracking a little at the end due to nerves.

" I need to focus." Din told her defensively.

She huffed at his short statement noticing octopus meant for the child's food was now stuck to his face while he wrestled with it.

" Don't play with your food." She ordered with hints of anger taking the octopus and placing it back into the soup.

" You seek others of your kind?" A man asked taking a seat by their table and only looking towards the Mandalorian.

Din, nodded," Have you seen them?"

" Aye. I can bring you to them."

" Where?"

" Only a few hours' sail. It'll cost you, though." The man warned, but Din quickly took some more credits from his pockets and handed it over to the man.

" Do we have a deal?"

The man took the deal leading them onto his ship with other crew members getting ready for a hunt. Nadia stood by the edge with the child watching the waves crash against the ship the faster they went and how the child giggled every once and a while when the water splashed his little face. Din slowly walked over to the two seeing the port in the distance slowly begin to fade away.

" Well, it's better than being on the razor crest. Am I right?" Nadia joked only to get a slight, very slight, nod from him as an answer." Seriously, just a nod?"

" What do you want me to say?" Din snarked back.

She rolled her eyes," Anything at this point." She mumbled.

" You ever see a mamacore eat?" The Captain questioned walking over to them." Quite a sight. Child might take an interest. You should take a look. Come on over here. Get a good view. Let the kid see."

" Wanna see it, little guy?" Nadia questioned not waiting for Din to answer since he wasn't even talking to her.

The two walked away from the edge of the boat seeing the middle gate of the ship begin to open while they strung fishes above ready to feed it. Nadia couldn't lie she was interested moving forward a bit only for Din to hold his arm out to stop her.

" All right, close enough." He warned.

She glanced at him rolling her eyes with a sarcastic laugh wondering if the planet Trask caused him to be so bi-polar. Once the gate was completely opened, the net opened up dropping a dozen fishes into the water that began to bubble up.

" There we go. She must be hungry. Oftentimes we'll feed her in the early morning, but we missed that 'cause we were goin' out of port!"

It happened in a flash, one minute the captain was speaking and the next minute, he swung his staff causing the child's pod to be flung into the water. As quickly as she realized it, the Captain did the same action again knocking her into the water and into the mouth of the mamacore.

" Nadia!"

It was the last thing she heard before darkness surrounded her and the tongue of the mamacore was trying to swallow her up. Inside the mouth was sharp, she mentally cursed when a tooth cut her leg, but pushed with her feet against it's throat to stop it. The child cried near her in it's pod, but from survival and darkness, she couldn't console him. Her lungs burned from lack of air and she dug her nails into the throat of the mamacore using her legs to stretch out on the other side hoping to burst it open.

Blaster sounds could be heard from the outside of the mamacore and soon it caused the monster itself to rawr in anger. For a brief moment, she could see what looked like a mandalorian enter ripping the creature from the inside. Whoever it was, grabbed the pod before grabbing her hand flying out of the water in no time. She gasped for air landing on the ground in pain, but it didn't matter to her when turning to the dented pod.

" The...child..."

" Stay down." Din ordered placing his hand over the bloody cut on her leg." You're hurt."

" Here you go, little one." One of the Mandalorian's spoke handing over the child to Nadia, who smiled seeing he was okay.

Din looked up to his coven," Thank you. I've been searching for more of our kind."

" Well, lucky we found you first."

" I've been quested to deliver this Child. I was hoping that..." Din explained only to stop when the three Mandalorian's in front of him removed their helmets revealing their faces." Where did you get that armor?"

" This armor has been in my family for three generations."

" You don't cover your face?" He said fiercely standing up." You are not Mandalorian."

" He's one of them."

" Dank farrik." The other cursed in annoyance.

" One of what?" Nadia questioned.

The one Mandalorian turned to Nadia, before bending down and spraying some bacta spray to heal her wound showing to both Din and her that she was no threat.

" I am Bo-Katan of Clan Kryze." She addressed looking up to Din when done." I was born on Mandalore and fought in the Purge. I am the last of my line. And you are a Child of the Watch."

" The Watch?"

Bo-Katan nodded with confidence," Children of the Watch are a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Mandalorian society. Their goal was to re-establish the ancient way."

" There is only one way. The Way of the Mandalore." Din corrected turning and helping Nadia off the floor." Come on."

She frowned at why Din would be so defensive when it came to them, but she couldn't ask once he flew the three of them off the ship without any other questions himself. The three of them walked in silence through the streets of Trask. Unlike morning, the ports were empty that not even a rat was around to scurry by. Nadia glanced over to Din, his stance so unreadable that she didn't know what he was even thinking behind that silver beskar.

" Wanna talk about it?" She asked breaking the silence.

He didn't say a word. Kept walking by her side with his face forward while holding the child in his arms. She didn't want her anger to flare up, but she could feel it the more he was giving the cold shoulder.

" Want to talk at all?" She questioned next.

Silence.

She laughed out loud," You regret it don't you."

" Regret what?" He questioned a bit curious.

" Clearly saving my life." She practically shouted turning sharply towards him." You know I didn't ask to fall into that frozen river and not be able to feel my fingers or my toes for the matter and for you to regret so badly for warming me up."

He looked at her like she was crazy," You think I regret saving you?"

" Clearly since you can't talk or even look at me!" She shouted glaring daggers at him if possible." If saving me was so damn hard for you, you could of let me drown! Better yet, not kiss me!"

She turned around ready to stomp away, anywhere that was away from him when a voice grabbed all of their attention.

" Hey!" The Tessek man shouted surrounding them with five others." You...You killed my brother."

Din slowly stood in front of Nadia," Let us pass."

" I don't you think you understand." The Tessek man threatened with the sounds of blasters charging up around them." You killed my brother and now I'm gonna kill your pet and little girlfriend."

Nadia slowly pulled the blaster from her side ready to fight if she had to, when the same Mandalorian coven from the ship flew down next to them quickly protecting the three.

" He didn't kill your brother." Bo-Katan clarified." I did."

With that, Bo-Katan and her people fired against the Tessek man and his people dropping them down before they even had the chance to process what was going on. Din glanced over to Nadia seeing she was unharmed by the action before turning to see Bo-Katan staring at him.

" Can we at least buy you a drink?"

" Sure." Nadia answered sparing a glare over to him." I need a couple of rounds."

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