Chapter Text
For my sister E.
THE MANDALORIAN: SEASON 3
THE WAY IS IN THE HEART
Prologue
Tatooine
"You’re absolutely sure you want to do this on your own?"
Din felt the warm desert sand crunching under the soles of his shoes and the wind stripping along his armor, and for the first time in days, he felt like he didn't have to shiver anymore.
Slowly and watching the two suns set, the Mandalorian circled the loading ramp of the small cargo ship until he stopped in front of Cara Dune, who looked at him attentively with her stoic dark eyes.
She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and leaned against the metal of the ship, which shimmered strangely bronze and ochre. It was a warm light that surrounded her and the purple horizon, a play of red and yellow and orange that was fiery as well as soothing at the same time. At least it was for Din. It reminded him of a feeling of security and the embrace with another body; something his scarred and lonely body hungry craved for.
He suppressed it.
"This is a good place to start over. I will find work quickly," he said. In the distance, right between two sand ridges, the sleepy lights of Mos Eisley blinked at him. Despite the relatively low buildings, elongated shadows covered the ground. "There are a lot of smugglers on Tatooine. This place is teeming with syndicates - and clients. I will do it alone."
"If you say that, it must be this way."
Admittedly, that it would get him back to the barren desert planet with the two suns was something that surprised even Din. Of all the planets that offered him a chance for a new beginning, his decision had fallen on Tatooine. And he wasn't the only one. Boba Fett and Fennec, they had both come back as well.
Facing his new home flickering in the sunset, he scraped his boots in the sand. He could have stayed on Nevarro, with Cara and Greef Karga, where for the time being no one would seek his life just because he wore armor from Beskar. They would have supported him and helped him earn credits and rebuild his life that had been destroyed by a laser volley on Tython into thousands of small splinters. Soon he would have been the bounty hunter again, to whom so much respect was attributed.
Instead, he now stood here on Tatooine, long months of hard dangerous work that he would have to cope with alone. Din was not only alone, but for the most part he was stuck on this planet until he had enough credits together.
It was not the best way. But for the Mandalorian, it was the only one that allowed him to get up from the ruins of his life on his own. That's what his heart told him.
"Don't feel like settling down somewhere? I know someone on Sorgan who would be very happy about your presence." Cara grinned mischievously. Din saw it out of the corner of his eye.
"You know me. Civilian life is not for me. I'm a bounty hunter, not a Krill farmer." A sigh escaped him. He was not made for living in a house or starting a family. His home was in a cockpit in a spaceship where... Wherever he was drawn.
"But the Spotchka was good, wasn't it?"
"Do you think a few drops of alcohol would change my mind?"
For a long moment, silence returned between them. This was a farewell to an unknown time, so Din was looking for suitable words, but all he could think of were confused thoughts and feelings that could not be put into words. Sentences remained unspoken, emotions shadowy; on the one hand by his own inability, on the other hand because of the silver-gray helmet on his head.
"No fear of not being able to travel with a ship anymore? Some people here are dangerous, you know," Cara broke the silence. Her looks became more penetrating and she squinted her eyes, as if trying to study him for any abnormalities. Din was uncomfortable, but he couldn't blame her. Cara couldn't have known - the memory of the Razor Crest weighed like heavy centenary load in his stomach. Everything that had happened lately, mind you.
"As well as quicksand. I'm armed." To demonstrate, he grabbed his hip holster. He had attached the Darksaber to it with some magnets. Bo-Katan had let him go, but Din knew that one day she would come back to legally fight her way back. Until then, he would probably be Mandalore's rightful heir to the throne. A strange feeling.
"But you could still be attacked in your sleep. Look, this can't happen on Nevarro. You could be our protector. Train others. Defend the city. Something like that. "
"Are you worried about me?" Under his helmet, the Mandalorian contorted his face. Cara wanted to stop him from doing this. He didn't want to talk about what might be and who could be lurking in the shadows.
All he wanted was a fresh start. Alone.
"To be honest, yes, Mando, I do." It was the first time Cara said such a thing to him. In general, it was the first time that someone openly worried about him. Din was silent. "It's because of the child, isn't it? You're not doing well."
"I... I miss him."
Cara's lips formed a sad smile. That was probably the understatement of the century. "I know that. I do too. But life goes on, Mando, and at some point you have to get over it. Grogu is not out of the world. He is now safe with the Jedi and when the time comes, sometime, you will see each other again. The Jedi has given you his word."
Grogu. The moment Din took off his helmet in front of the child had been his most fragile and vulnerable moment ever. What exactly had gone through his mind at that moment, he could not recall anymore. Din had done it in affect, and he had done it so that the child would see his face, which he had kept secret from him for so long.
"But hiding doesn't help at all. If you run away from your feelings, they will chase you forever."
"I'm not hiding."
"Only someone who’s hiding would say that. "
"Whatever."
Din had broken the codex a second time, but this time knowingly and in front of a living being. In front of Grogu, his little green comrade. For whom he would do anything.
Again it became quiet around them. Together they brought the two bags from Board that he had taken with him for his new beginning on Tatooine - a few cans, weapons and credits. It wasn't much, but it was enough. In his time as a bounty hunter, he had already gotten by with less.
Din hesitantly strapped them over his shoulders. The last bit he would walk. Cara watched him, alternating between the settlement and then eyeing him again. She knew he wouldn't change his mind.
"Sure you don't want to go to Sorgan?"
"Cara... "
"Just kidding. Everyone needs a break. Take care of yourself." Friendly, she slapped him on the shoulders, and Din barely wavered noticeably. She had a tremendous amount of strength in her arms. "If you need help or a taxi, just call. And visit us on Nevarro, should you ever be nearby. You are welcome there."
When Din turned around wordlessly, she did the same. Both knew he wouldn't do the former. They wasted no time talking about their adventure together or continuing to talk about their future plans – Din doubted whether he would have been able to do such a thing at all. Now that everything was over and yet it went on again, as paradoxical as it seemed to him.
Moff Gideon was safe in a place where he would not be able to wreak havoc for life, Grogu was safe and the fight – war -ended for the time being. Their journey together had come to an end, but life went on, the planets on which they lived still revolved around their orbital circles, and time progressed at the same pace as it had always done.
It was hard to leave all that behind, to leave Grogu behind. The time with him had felt like half a lifetime. A life that, despite all the complications, had been a good one and which, in retrospect, evoked a peculiar longing in the Mandalorian. Grogu's nature had changed him.
Without him, Din felt incomplete.
"Cara?" Abruptly, the bounty hunter stopped. A storm raged in his head. No, that could not be the end with the best will. It just wasn't allowed to.
"Yes?"
Din thought for a long time about what to say now, but he couldn't think of anything special. He was looking forward to words to thank the Marshal... But there was nothing.
"Thank you," he finally said, because it was the only word that described everything. To say goodbye, he raised his hand, and Cara did the same. Now he already had two promises that he had to keep.
“This is the way!“
Only gradually did his silver figure disappear in the sunset. Din felt Cara look after him until the blurring of the horizon obscured him, and he was completely swallowed up by Tatooine's desert fields. He didn't turn around, even when she called something else after him. Something with arm wrestling and revenge.
Under his helmet, Din smiled. Yes, that was the way. Into the future - his future.
. . .