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The Jedi and Mandalorians were never friends.
The series of battles and the ancient war between them was evidence enough. Din was taught of the Mandalorian-Jedi War as a young child, how it was vicious and destructive, and ended with the devastation of Mandalore. He was taught to despise the Jedi, even though they were almost all exterminated long ago.
And here one stood before him, protectively wielding a glowing green lightsaber in front of his chest.
But, he wasn’t using it against him. Instead, the Jedi was facing over a dozen stormtroopers—the Empire may have fallen, but many managed to slip through the cracks and survive—the same troopers that were just threatening to kill Din and take the child not moments before.
“A Jedi?” One of the stormtroopers with an orange pauldron—clearly a higher up—mused from the front of the group. “The bounty would practically triple if we bring you in too.” The stormtroopers raised their blasters.
The Jedi tensed, his grip tightening minutely on the handle of the lightsaber. “If you knew what was good for you, you would leave,” he replied, his voice a deep growl. “And I’m no Jedi. Just the right guy at the right place.”
He cast a glance over his shoulder, not at Din, but at the child he was currently holding close to his chest. It clicked that the Jedi wasn’t here to protect Din; he was here because of the child. Somehow he knew of the Force within the child, and somehow he had managed to find him.
The stormtrooper laughed, and the Jedi redirected his attention once more to the squad in front of him. “Your kind destroyed us, Jedi. We will not give you up so easily.”
With a wave of his hand, the troopers started firing.
The Jedi blocked most of their shots with quick swipes of his lightsaber, remaining planted in front of Din to shield him and the child. Suddenly he outstretched his hand, and the squad of troopers flew off their feet and landed a few meters away.
Whipping around, the Jedi spoke in an urgent tone, “You need to get out of here! I’ll hold them off, just take the child and go!”
With the Jedi facing Din, he could now see his features. His eyes were an unnaturally pale shade of blue, framed by light, sandy hair and a jagged scar running horizontally over the bridge of his nose.
The stormtroopers were quickly recovering, and as much as Din wanted to stay and fight those bucketheads, he was majorly outnumbered. Perhaps without the danger of the child being injured he would stay and fight, but the child came first.
“Alright,” he responded, and the Jedi nodded.
He ran with the child peering over his shoulder, watching the Jedi until he couldn’t see him anymore. The child made a soft cooing noise as the sounds of blasters faded away.
As soon as they reached the Razor Crest, Din placed the child in his alcove in the wall and slid into the cockpit seat. He didn’t look back as he flew the ship off the planet.
After all, it was just a Jedi.
-
Din wasn’t quite expecting to run into the Jedi again, especially in this situation.
He was tied to a pole—albeit horribly, he was already starting to slip the rope off his wrists—with the child squirming as an alien held him by the scruff of his robes. Din glared at the alien through his helmet, both at the fact that he had his kid in his grubby hands and that he’d managed to hit him with some knockout dart.
The alien seemed to have gotten the look regardless of the helmet, and laughed. “Your head holds a high bounty, my friend,” he said, voice a scratchy and dull tone. He waved the child around, causing a snarl from Din. “This little one is worth much as well. Dead or alive, they said.”
Din said nothing and chose to glower at the alien as he continued to loosen his bonds. Suddenly, a blaster shot and a yell sounded from beyond the small room Dyn was contained in.
The alien scrambled to get his communication device and snapped some words in a different language. There was no response.
More blasters went off, each time coming closer and closer to the door. The alien looked panicked now, dropping the comm system and reaching for his blaster before the door flew off its hinges and struck the wall behind Din.
Standing in the doorway was the Jedi, surrounded by bodies on the ground, illuminated by the green glow of the lightsaber. The ropes around Din’s wrists finally came free just as the alien put the blaster to the child’s head.
“You move and I shoot the asset!” The alien barked, focused on the Jedi. He didn’t even notice Din sneaking up behind him, dagger in hand.
His mistake.
A slice to the jugular and the alien was dead. Din caught the child as the body fell, soothing him with gentle Mando’a words.
“You again,” Din remarked as he checked the child for any injuries. When none were found, he looked up at the Jedi.
The Jedi opened his mouth to respond before a large boom echoed down the hall. Heavy footsteps were getting closer to the room.
Quickly, the Jedi broke one of the windows in the room with his saber. “I’ll take care of them, you take the child to safety.”
Shouting voices grew nearer to the room. The Jedi held the lightsaber defensively in front of him and planted his feet.
With a final look, Din vaulted through the broken window and ran with the child snug in his arms. If he stayed and fought, the child would be in danger of getting injured. As much as he didn’t want to, he decided to listen to the Jedi and leave the fighting to him.
At least he got to kill the di’kut that managed to catch him.
-
Din was tired, injured, and surrounded by bounty hunters.
He stood stock-still in the middle of the circle of hunters, favoring his right leg and clutching the child to his chest. Typically he would have been taking them out guns blazing, but the child was whimpering into the crook of his arm. The child was more important than his own safety.
“We finally caught up to you, Mando,” one of the bounty hunters jeered. “You can’t escape from this one. What is it that you say… ‘I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold’?” The hunter poorly imitated Din’s gruff voice, and the other hunters mockingly laughed.
Din opened his mouth to respond before he caught a glimpse of a person running towards the bounty hunter speaking. The hunters behind Din also seemed to notice and managed to shout a warning before a green light pierced through the front of the hunter’s chest.
The body fell to the ground and a pair of familiar, pale blue eyes were fixed on him.
The other hunters scrambled to aim their blasters as the Jedi gracefully darted between each of them, cutting them down with a slash of his saber. Din held the child in one arm, and started firing his blaster at the remaining bounty hunters. He wasn’t about to run like last time.
“Who are you and why are you following me?” Din shouted over the sounds of blasters and the lightsaber.
The Jedi grunted as he performed a rather unnecessary series of flips while taking out multiple hunters. “Do we really have to have this conversation right now?” He responded.
Din rolled to avoid a sharp blade, careful not to jostle the child too much. “You’re interested in my kid, and you’re a Jedi, so we are.”
The Jedi sent out a powerful Force blast that sent the last of the bounty hunters through a wall. He turned to Din, panting slightly. “I’m not a Jedi,” he said, sheathing his lightsaber into his belt.
“Yeah, you’re just the right guy at the right place, correct?” Din asked with a hint of sarcasm seeping into his tone. “The lightsaber and your powers don’t seem to help your case.” Din lowered his blaster, but didn’t put it away, finger hovering on the trigger.
“The Jedi are dead and gone,” the man replied, something odd in his voice. “I don’t know what I am, but I’m not them. I took this,” he gestured to the saber, “off of a dead man. And for the rest… I’m still trying to figure that out.”
Din narrowed his eyes. “Why are you following me?” He repeated.
“Your kid,” the Jedi-not-Jedi answered. The child peered up at him at the mention of his title. “He is strong with the Force.”
Din thinks back to the mudhorn, of the child’s outstretched hand and pained look. He thinks of the beast hovering in midair, of the child saving him.
The man ignores his silence and continues, “I felt… something within me a few weeks ago. A disturbance, maybe. All I know is that I felt the need to go to it, and then I saw the kid and the Force around them. I don’t know much about this stuff, but I do know that other people besides me felt that disturbance too. Dangerous people, who cannot have that kid.”
One of the unconscious bounty hunters stirred, catching Din’s attention. The Jedi seemed to notice too, and said, “If you want to continue this conversation, we’re going to have to move.”
Din paused—why should I trust a Jedi?—but nodded briskly and followed the Jedi deep into town.