Chapter Text
Teryn sat on her roof, watching at the sunset. It was one of the moments where it felt like the universe was in perfect balance, everything was right with the galaxy. Those moments usually were closely followed by utter chaos, but that only made the moments of balance more cherished. Like getting a chance to take a breath before the storm.
It had been nearly six months since she sent Din and the Ad’ika back into the sky on Arkanis. She and Andrys had come back, disposed of the bounty hunter, buried Chakaar (who had a warrior’s death), and went back into their lives. But it was different. He knew who she was and her entire story. She was able to tell him things about growing up Mando’a, which after ten years of holding it all back, had been a relief.
About a month after parting ways on Arkanis, Din came back. He hadn’t sent any warning, and she could tell the second he stepped out of the Crest that something was horribly wrong.
He told her what had happened on Navarro. About the Client. And Moff Gideon. And the IG unit.
And he told her what had happened to the Covert.
“All of them?”
“I think they got the foundlings out, and some others. Some were off-world. The Armorer was there when I left.”
He told her what the Armorer had said about the Kid, about him being a Foundling. About being his Foundling. She cocked her eyebrow like well, duh.
“I wanted to tell you in person.” He paused. “You didn’t ask. But the answer is I don’t know.”
Is the coward who stole my helmet still alive?
Din and the Kid left the next day with a crate full of fresh food and another crate of medical supplies. “You’re a father now, you have to actually take care of yourself, so… keep all this shit this time.”
As she climbed down from the roof, she could hear her communicator blaring. Chaos rarely calls, it usually just shows up.
There was a one word message from Din: “Viinir.”
Run .
He included a timestamp that indicated he would be there in two hours, and coordinates in the mountains.
Not a lot of time to pack up a life.
If he was telling her to run, that meant that he'd found out that someone was hunting her. She’d been sort of expecting this to happen at some point ever since he’d arrived with the Kid. She had been coasting on the hope that “some point” would be on the far side of never.
Sloppy.
Packing took up space that could have been filled by thinking, and that was a relief. Sorting through belongings quickly. I had nothing when I got here. How did I get so many things in four years? Clothing- just take things that were utilitarian, layers, useful, hard wearing. And the scarf Andrys bought because he said it reminded him of her eyes when she got angry.
Medical supplies- what could she bring with her, and what should be left for whatever doctor they got to replace her. Household goods- blankets. Her favorite pillow. I’m not leaving my hammock behind.
Quickly flip through the small collection of books. Food. Spices.
Dig up the stash of credits buried in the garden.
Weapons. Her armor.
Atin, her loth cat, watched all this activity happening when it should have been approaching bedtime with growing concern. He chirped when she started loading the speeder. “I’m sure Andrys will take care of you. You can’t come.”
Andrys .
She’d known him for almost nine years. They’d been through so much together. Most of the war. Everything since. He’d stuck by her even through some of the worst times of her life, patient, kind. He’d even been ready to throw down with Din just because Din had made her sad.
This was going to devastate him.
She glanced at the chrono. She grabbed one last meat pie and started heading towards the mountains, driving slightly faster than was reasonable.
At the rendezvous point, tucked in a valley, she stopped the speeder behind some trees and waited, lights off. She heard a ship approaching, and crouched low, blaster drawn, just in case. The Razor Crest landed, running dark, and after a few minutes, Din opened the hatch. She made a short, sharp whistle, and he responded with a low whistle of his own. She went towards the ship, senses alert for anything out of the ordinary.
“What happened?”
“Gideon is alive.”
She felt the blood drain from her face. “Shit.”
“He has the records from Mandalore. He knows our names.”
“Which means he’d know that we had the same buir.”
“And he’d be able to find you.” He sighed. “You’ve been here a while. You’re known in the sector.”
“And he’d use me to get to you. And the Kid.” She nodded numbly. “Okay. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Well. Shit.”
“Yes. Did you have time to pack?”
She nodded, and went to get the speeder. “This is what I’ve got. There’s food and meds in there, too.”
“Not much.”
“It’s twice as much as I had when I got here.” They started loading. The Kid was inside, patiently waiting, and once he saw her, he made a happy trill of greeting. Then he started looking around impatiently. “I’m sorry, ad’ika, Atin is not-”
The Kid babbled something at the hatch, and an orange blur shot up the gangplank. The Kid shrieked in joy, and Atin headbutted him so hard he fell over. Din and Teryn looked at each other. “I did not-”
“He can’t-”
“I know-”
The Kid looked at them both, hands fisted in Atin’s fur, and babbled. Atin looked smug. Teryn and Din both sighed in resignation. “Fine.” Din said, more to himself than anyone else. “We’ll figure it out.”
They finished unloading the speeder, and Teryn frowned at it. “If we leave it here it’ll be pretty fucking obvious I jumped planet. There’s a ravine about a klick away. We should dump it there.”
“Dump? Or set it on fire?”
“Both. I’m in a burning mood.”
Din got an extra can of the accelerant for his flamethrower, and they drove the ravine. At the edge, he sprayed the accelerant over the speeder, while she rigged it to go forward without a driver. He hit it with his flamethrower just as the speeder started moving, and it went over the edge and exploded.
“Not the most sophisticated method of faking one’s death that’s ever been done, but it’ll have to do.” She let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “No time to acquire a corpse. Maybe if I'd had another hour.”
They walked back to the Razor Crest. “You think they’ll buy it?”
“Most of them? Maybe. Probably.” She sighed. “Andrys probably won’t.”
“He doesn’t know?”
“Wasn’t time. And it’s better this way. He’d have spent the entire time arguing with me about why he should come along.”
“Would you want him too?”
She didn’t answer for a long time. “I don’t know.” After another long pause, “Besides, if he thinks I ran off, then maybe he’ll just tell the imps that and they won’t try to force information out of anyone else.”
Din nodded. It was a hope. Neither one of them really believed it would be that easy.
They climbed into the Razor Crest, and she watched another life drop away beneath her, the fire of the crashed speeder still burning.
Andrys went to her house the next morning, and could tell immediately that something was wrong. The speeder wasn’t there, which wasn’t unusual. If there had been an emergency in the night, she might not be back yet. But the house was weirdly empty, like it simply no longer had an accupant. With a sinking feeling he poked around, noticing things that were simply missing. She liked to sleep with a pile of pillows and most of them were there, except for the one that was her avowed favorite.
The entire contents of her spice cabinet. Her favorite mug.
And while he could see Shabuir sunning himself on the wall, there was no sign of Atin. His food dishes were still there, but no sign of her stubborn shadow. She had left. Without a single fucking word.
The planet’s mayor arrived not much later, her face sad and shocked. “I was hoping you’d be here. I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but… we found her speeder this morning, burned to a crisp. It looks like there was a crash, and… I’m so sorry.”
Andrys looked back around at the house, and then at the mayor, and shook his head slightly. “No, that can’t be right…”
He didn’t miss much.