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A smuggler, a Wookie, a Jedi and a senator land on Nevarro.
But that isn’t where the story starts.
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Din was about to walk down the gangway of the Razor Crest when a heavy feeling of dread blanketed him. He paused, head tilting to the side in thought.
Looking back up into the ship, Kuiil was holding Grogu in his arms and had paused when Din had suddenly stopped in front of him.
“Change of plans. Kuiil, stay in the cockpit.” Turning back around to the ground, he pointed a gloved finger at IG. “You, back in the ship. Stand at the door and guard it.” He walked off the gangplank, the uneasiness fading into the background for the moment.
Cara had her head tilted to the side after the door had raised, this time with IG inside. “What was that about?”
“Nothing,” Din muttered, trying his best not to think about the sudden images of a too-small stone cairn and lava-melted tech that he had been accosted by.
He had long ago learned to listen to those brief flashes of possibility.
Din had just started to check for access points into the sewers when Cara interrupted with, “They are setting up an E-Web.”
The next few moments passed by in a blur, between trying to get the grate to the sewers open, and then listening to Gideon’s monologue.
And then suddenly, something… changed . The hair on the back of Din’s neck stood up, listening to Moff Gideon drawl on. He could almost hear a voice, joyful and rolling like the wind, and almost as old, beguiling as it seemed to shout, “ I see you, don’t worry!”
“What is happening out there?” Greef was trying to stay as close to the pillar as possible while also trying to see into the courtyard.
Peeking out the window, they could see that the troopers had all turned to look at the eastern entrance, blasters raised.
In the distance they could hear a Wookie.
Two speeder bikes were suddenly barreling into the yard, the blasters mounted on them firing rapidly into the crowd. The passenger on both of the speeders slid off and rolled on the ground with eerily synchronized movements. They were both lithe and seemingly unarmed.
That is until they stood back to back and each drew out a sword that seemed to glow like the stars.
Cara seemed to jolt next to him, and even Greef looked surprised.
“Jedi? On Nevarro? ”
They watched, stunned at the chaos the four were causing. The Wookiee and the man that were running in circles on the speeder were going in opposite directions around the outside, their blasters firing as fast as possible. The two with the glowing swords seemed to be extensions of each other, the man dressed all in black and the woman in white. They deflected the blaster bolts into the troopers around them.
A stray bolt from the man’s speeder sailed towards the woman who batted it into the closest enemy. She whirled around and placed a hand on her hip before shouting, “ Han!” Without looking she moved her blade behind herself to bat another bolt away.
“Sorry Your Highness!” he shouted with a laugh. “At least these aren’t the worst odds we’ve ever had!”
Cara turned to Din and Greef in disbelief. “Who the fuck are these people?”
In very short order, the four had taken complete control of the courtyard, the troopers either dispatched or had surrendered. Gideon himself was hogtied with the Wookiee standing over him.
Din paused as he opened the door, warily stepping out of the cantina and onto the street to greet the four.
The small man in black was standing on top of the TIE, head swiveling in all directions as he seemed to search for something. His face scrunched up with a scowl before he slid down the curve to land nimbly on the ground.
Din thought he heard the giggling again.
“Can our next family vacation not involve Imps?” Han whined. He was leaning against his speeder, soot streaked on his cheek.
“Or sand?” asked the man that had been standing on the TIE. He kicked his boots through a pile of it on the ground, wrinkling his nose when it marred the mirror finish.
The woman rolled her eyes as she rolled her wrist in a seemingly easy gesture before extinguishing her weapon and clipping it to her belt. “ I’m not the nerf herder that followed the call of a sword to help them find their owner, Luke. ” She punctuated this with crossing her arms over her chest.
Gideon’s face snapped to her as he said faintly, “ What?”
The woman tilted her head to the side in thought before she gave a nod and raised her hand and Gideon rose in the air with it.
Luke squeaked out an affronted, “ Leia! ”
Her hand paused in the air, Gideon’s hogtied body stopping with it. She turned to Luke, raising one perfectly manicured eyebrow. “What?” She rolled her eyes with a huff. “Are you about to say that this is ‘an inappropriate use of the Force’?”
Luke deflated, big blue eyes catching the light from the setting sun. His shoulders even got into the act.
As the two bookend adults started to bicker in earnest, Din seemed to be the only one that saw Gideon wiggle his one arm to the side. In a knee-jerk reaction, his arm shot out to grab the Moffs, bringing Gideon’s arm up and around and making him drop the strange rectangular weapon that he had managed to bring out. There was a satisfying crunch before he let go.
Din bent down and snagged the weapon from the dust even as the Wookiee brayed and brought out more rope to tie Gideon up with. The Bookends had turned to look at Din with their oddly matching brown and blue eyes. Luke’s eyebrows furrowed for a second before they smoothed out and he nodded. The wind seemed to settle and Din slipped the odd weapon into his boot.
Leia’s head swiveled from Luke to Din and then back again. “Really?” She set her stance wider, hands falling to her hips again. “ Really?”
Luke seemed to dip his head in a rueful nod, a small smile making its way across his face.
Leia sighed before she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well, your taste is hopefully better than mine.”
Han’s outraged cry of “Hey! I resemble that remark!” was largely ignored when a new wave of Troopers started to flood the courtyard.
Han slid off his speeder, a blaster in hand as he visibly took stock of what their situation was devolving into. “I think it's time we relocated.”
They rushed back to the blown-out shell of the cantina, the Wookie having slung Gideon carelessly over his back. Both Greef and Cara were hiding in the doorway, twin looks that were a mix between shell shock and awe on their faces.
Din scanned the area again, trying to find an entrance into the coverts network of sewers. “It’s here,” he called, moving over to the grate set into the side of the room.
Luke rushed right behind him, head tilting in curiosity. “What is it?” He was already pulling out his sword, finger on the activation switch.
Din pursed his lips behind his helmet before making his decision. “A Mandalorian covert is down here. They can help us.”
“At least it isn’t a trash compactor this time. Hope there isn’t a tentacle monster at the end of it!”
Leia hit Han in the stomach for the comment.
Luke rolled his eyes, igniting his sword and creating a hole in the grate. Din hauled the separated piece out and everyone scrambled through, the Wookie tossing Gideon in without a care.
Luke was the last one to hop through and he replaced the grate behind him with a handwave. They rushed down to the depths of the sewers, Din in front, charging down the hallways until they reached the Forge.
The shock of seeing the pieces of armor piled up in the hallway outside the Forge made a sick feeling settle into his stomach. Before he could whirl around and question Greef, to see if his guild had caused this, the Armorer had emerged from the Forge.
“It was not his fault,” she said slowly. “We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert.” She picked up a breastplate and put it in the turbocart nearby. “The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter. This is what resulted.”
“Did any survive?” The words seemed to stick in Din’s throat.
“I hope so. Some may have escaped off-world.” She placed another piece of armor in the turbocart.
“Come with us.” He could hear their newest companions shifting at the back of the group. The Wookie made a very low braying sound.
“No,” she scoffed, selecting a helmet to add to her pile. “I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains.” She pushed the cart into the Forge proper.
Din followed dutifully behind. As she placed a breastplate into the hearth, she said, “Show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction.”
Din ducked his head. “He is safe, back on the Crest.” Lifting his vambrace, he triggered a holo of the kid chasing around a frog that he had recorded back on Sorgen, what felt like a lifetime ago. He thought he heard a gurgling sound from Luke, followed swiftly by the sound of Leia hitting him to shut him up.
Her golden helmet was tipped as she watched the child chase the frog before he flopped down, clearly exhausted. His ears folded down in the holo before his head turned to Din, and his arms raised in a gesture clearly conveying that he wanted to be picked up. The holo cut off to the sound of a chuckle coming from Din’s vocoder. “This is the one that you hunted, then saved?”
“Yes. The one that saved me as well.” Another holo started, this one of the child clearly attempting to hide from Din from around a large pot. His ears were visible on either side. He kept peeking from behind the pot before ducking back, a smile showing teeth even with the quality of the feed.
“From the mudhorn?” There was another choking sound from Luke.
“Yes.”
“It looks helpless,” she observed, watching the child in the holo shuffle away from the pot and fall face first down on the ground. The feed jostled around before the holo cut off this time.
“It...tires easily, but it is not helpless. Its species can move objects with its mind.”
The Armorer turned back to the hearth. “I know of such things. The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mand’alor the Great, and an order of sorcerers called Jedi that fought with such powers.” Her voice grew quiet as she gave name to them.
This time, Din knew that it was both Luke and Leia that were shuffling. Remembering how the foursome had rode in at the last moment, guns literally blazing and tossing troopers around, Din asked hesitantly, “It is an enemy?”
“No,” the Armorer was quick to say. “Its kind were enemies, but this individual is not.”
“Uh, the Jedi don’t have to be enemies.” Everyone turned to Luke, who had his gloved hand awkwardly raised to about chest level. He winced. Taking out the sword from before, he set the hilt on the ground before nudging it towards the Armorer with his foot. He elbowed Leia into doing the same. She did, but it was accompanied by an eyeroll and crossed arms. After a second, Luke coughed and his hands flexed at his sides. “Hi, I’m Luke Skywalker.” His voice warbled even as he shrugged his shoulders. “We’re here to help?”
Leia shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose again. Han started to chuckle. “Kid, you definitely need a new pick up line.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Using the same one that you used on your sister just isn’t classy. ”
Any more conversation was stopped by the sound of Imperials charging down the hall outside. Both Luke and Leia flew out of the Forge, their weapons flying back into their hands even as they crossed the threshold.
Han sighed and shouldered his blaster. “Time to go chase after the chaos twins, hmmm?” He slowly walked to the door, using it as cover. “Why did I marry into this family?”
The Wookiee brayed, putting the unconscious Gideon in the corner and taking out his bowcaster.
The Armorer turned to Din. “I was going to task you with finding the foundlings kind, but it seems they found you.” She tilted her head to the side, listening to the sounds of blaster bolts rebounding off their strange glowing swords.
There was suddenly a high-pitched shriek, followed by a shrill, “Sorry Luke!”
Very shortly after that the two twins walked back into the room, Luke holding his extinguished sword in his left hand, and Leia holding his other hand with both arms. It was smoking and definitely not attached anymore .
“Again?” Han sighed. "We are going to run out of spares on the Falcon at this point."
Leia’s face made a complicated series of motions before seeming to settle on sheepish. “At least I only keep chopping off the one hand?” she offered.
Luke attempted to put the hilt on his belt, taking two tries before it stuck. He pulled a face at her. “I make sure to stand on your left. I don’t want Father to have taken out my right hand only for my sister to take out my left.”
Leia winced harder. “Look, I am sorry about that…”
The Armorer walked into Din’s field of vision suddenly. “You have earned your Signet.” She welded the Mudhorn onto his pauldron. “You are a clan of two.” Her helmeted gaze slid over to the bickering siblings. “Possibly more,” she said very quietly so that the others did not hear.
Under his helmet, Din could feel his ears grow hot, instantly catching her meaning. “I just met them,” he hissed back, equally as quiet.
“And yet you brought them down here.”
Din’s shoulders fell slightly at that. “They saved our lives.” Both Mandalorians looked over as both Han and the Wookiee joined in the argument. The Armorer looked back to him again and Din winced.
Luke suddenly held a hand up and excused himself from the argument, unclipping his sword and stepping back into the hallway. After the sound of a few blaster shots, he was once again clipping his weapon back to his waist and rejoining the family squabble.
“These are much different Jedi than the ones I have met before.” She strode back to the turbocart, selecting another piece of armor to melt down into an ingot. Moving around to grab another one of her tools, she looked over to Din. “You know where the underground river is. Take them, and go.”
Din opened his mouth to agree before he was bowled over by the dread from before. The feeling this time was joined by the touch of wind that he had experienced topside, also urging him no, stay here for the moment, and then go back up .
The Armorer turned her attention fully to Din now, head tilted to the side in consideration. “Something changed. What is it?” She placed another piece into the hearth before turning back to him again. “That was clearer than before.”
The weapon in his boot seemed to warm gently, the feeling of show me show me show me crawling up his spine. Distantly, Din could see that the argument had calmed down, and both Greef and Cara had joined the resulting discussion. It seemed there was even a comlink in the mix now too. Gideon was still out cold in the corner. Shuffling down, he retrieved the weapon and held it out for her to see. The black paint reflected the flames of the Forge. “It got clearer after I picked up this.”
The Armorer straightened where she stood, her breath audibly hitching, even through the interference of the vocoder in her helmet. “Where did you get that?”
Not understanding her reaction to the hilt, he motioned to Gideon in the corner. “He was about to attack with it.”
She set her tools down. “You won in combat against him?”
Din gave a one shouldered shrug. “Technically?”
The Armorer just continued to fix him with her helmeted gaze. After a few more seconds she shook her head and added more armor pieces to the hearth. “As you have already found the Jedi, I will give you a new task.” She paused as she used her ladle to pour the reclaimed metal into the ingot mold. “Have them teach your foundling, and you.”
Din looked from her to the discussion still happening on the other side of the room. Leia was tucking strands of hair out of her face as she walked back into the Forge, clipping her sword back to her side. She hit Luke on the back of the head two seconds later and he turned to her, throwing his arms up in the air. Din turned back to the Armorer.
“As I said, these are not like the Jedi I have met before.” She nodded towards the group. “The one said that they married into the family. If the Jedi are allowing that now, surely they will take in both you and the child.” She placed a vambrace this time into the hearth before she continued. “Before, the child would have been taken away.” Her gaze swung to meet his again as she waited for the piece to liquify. “You would have been considered much too old to train.”
Din felt a lump rise in his throat that he did his best to work away before asking his next question. “You are suggesting I keep the child as my own?”
The Armorer stepped closer, letting one of her gloved hands settle over the vambrace that he had played the holos from. “You already have. Separating you now would not do you, or the child any good.”
“I...” he started, trying to deny that he had any attachment to his once bounty.
She tilted her helmet at him. “Din Djarin, one does not take holos of something they are not attached to.” She stepped away to place another few pieces of armor into the hearth.
Din felt the touch of wind along his neck and turned to see Leia walking towards them with a slightly pinched expression on her face. “There is a New Republic regiment that is en route to help clean up the rest of the Imps topside.” Her eyes glinted sharply. “They should be here within the hour and we should have everything cleared up the hour after that.” Her eyes flicked to the weapon still in Din’s outstretched hand.
The wind rustled again, licking along Din’s shins and raising the hair on the back of his neck. He dropped his arm and tucked the weapon back into his boot once more.
She made a nod to the weapon as he tucked it away. “That was what brought us here.” She didn’t sound mad, or even as if she wanted to contest him for possession of it.
The Armorer turned her helmet in Leia’s direction, even as she scooped molten metal out of the hearth with her ladle. “You were tracking the Darksaber?”
Leia shook her head. “It called out to my brother.” She gave a wry smile, crossing her arms across her chest. “I guess it wasn’t happy to be in the hands of the Imperials and had selected its new owner.” Her fingers tapped on her arm as she looked to Din. “That saber is a curious thing. My brother has never heard anything like it.” She winced, admitting, “Not that he has had a chance to hear much.”
They glanced over to the other group, Luke having gone out of the room to deal with the newest batch of Troopers that was coming down the hallway. Han had been left holding the com, talking with someone on the other side and obviously waiting for Luke to come back.
“And you heard nothing?” the Armorer questioned.
Leia scrunched her nose. “I’m not intune enough yet. I just started my training.” She shrugged. “I heard something but it was too faint for me to pick up.”
The Armorer turned and added yet another piece to the hearth. After a moment she turned back to face Leia again and her helmet tipped in consideration. “I have met Jedi before.” Their attention was snagged as Luke stalked back in the room, swearing even as he attempted to clip his lightsaber back in place and shake the sparking stump of his right arm.
The Armorers helmet swung to face Leia even as she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Is this how the Jedi are now?”
A hand resting on her hip, Leia gave her a long-suffering look. “They are when they grow up Tatooine farmboys.”
“I heard that!”
As Leia had promised, the New Republic rode in and cleaned up what was left of the troopers, rounding them up and whisking them off planet.
Din stood off to the side, his elbows brushing the Armorer’s as they watched the competent way that the three humans operated. It seemed almost as if they were one, simply split into three bodies, with the Wookie sticking tight to Han.
She hummed before she turned her helmet to face him. “They seem to at least have the same efficiency as the Jedi I remember.” The pieces of her Forge were dismantled at their feet.
There was something melancholy about standing in the sun next to her, the tools of her craft strewn around them. He distantly wondered when she had last been topside, let alone seen the sun.
“Where will you go?” He asked instead.
“I will make my way to Mandalore.” She paused for a moment before she asked, “And what of you?”
Din sighed, the sound coming through clearly through the vocoder in his helmet.
“The time of secrecy is over,” she continued instead, taking his sigh for the reply it wasn’t.
“So you said,” Din murmured softly, his vocoder barely catching his voice.
Below, Din could see the Child riding along in his pouch, strapped to IG’s torso. His little clawed arms were flailing around even as IG chased after the blue astromech that the Jedi had brought out of their disc shaped ship.
Din had almost sputtered at the glee that his newest weapon had flared with upon Artoo rolling down the ramp. He had been standing with Luke just a few feet away, both of them examining the strange thing that the other kept insisting was a saber and not some weird, fancy vibroblade.
The feeling Din received from the sword when he had said that matched the distressed expression on Luke’s face.
Either way, when the astromech and sword trilled greetings in unison, both Luke and Din had jumped, the latter losing his hold on the sword and dropping it to the dirt.
The Armorer had just set the last of her things nearby in time to see their ungraceful act and had just sighed and shook her head. Her gloved hand came up and rested against her visor before she reminded them, again , that it was called the Darksaber.
Leia had slid over to stand next to the Armorer then, hands behind her back as she rocked to the balls of her feet. Humming, she gave a rueful smile. “Tatooine farmboy,” she said again, once again referencing her brother. Shortly after this was when the trio had been pulled by the New Republic to coordinate getting the Troopers sorted out.
Now, Din could see that Kuiil was astride one of his blurrgs, loping after the plucky astromech that the Kid was gleefully riding.
Din shifted where he stood, making an aborted movement to catch the Kid from so many meters away, only to sigh in relief as IG did the saving for him. Pulling the Darksaber out to look at it in the sun again, he hit the activator button before staring down its blade and turning to her.
Feeling the saber itself reverberate with his words, he sighed before he nodded at her. “I will learn.”
It was a promise.