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As the night wore on, both the Children of the Watch and Night Owls gradually dispersed near the ship of survivors to take their rest, some in groups near the fires, others individually, all arrayed in a perimeter for safety. The Armorer and the ship’s captain, upon completion of their triage work, tried to make the wounded and sick comfortable for transport the next morning before taking their respective leaves. The camp grew quiet, until the only sign of movement was a single figure walking among the groups.
For all of her brethren around her, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze felt as though she was once more alone, left only with her own ruminations as she wandered through the camp pondering the uneasiness of where she was in time and space. Twice before she had been here, guiding her people, their whole trust in her. Twice before, her reign had been cut short in violence and disaster. Was she truly ready to fight for this again? To risk the increasingly rare lives of the people of mandalore, for another shot at leading this war ravaged world and to lead these survivors on the greater galactic stage? The Darksaber weighed heavily on her belt, a constant reminder of the duty she knew was hers, yet feared.
At times like this, she longed for a chance to speak with her family again. In particular, she would have given anything to talk to her sister one more time. Satine and she had never seen eye to eye in their youth, but seeing her killed for the cause of Mandalore had gutted Bo to her core. Nearly all her life since had been spent trying to regain control of the planet and its people to restore the order her sister had lost her life believing in.
Then, of course, there was her father. Adonai Kryze had been an honorable man, and strong willed leader. They had been very close when she was a child, and when he had been killed in the civil wars, She had vowed to avenge him, but in the complicated decade between then and the siege of Mandalore, she had failed to do so and inadvertently caused her own sister’s death. Her mother had died of a broken heart, and Bo had learned to cut herself off from others.
She’d spent many years leading others, more still trying to organize and rally other Mandalorians to her cause, but in all that time, she had held herself aloof, keeping her heart encased in it’s own beskar’gam, afraid to put herself in a position to lose someone close again. And yet the destruction of Castle Kryze had nearly driven her to madness. All that remained of her legacy, and that of her once proud house was the mandalorian steel from which her armor was forged.
In fact, had it not been for Din Djarin, in all likelihood she would be entombed in the wreckage of her Kom’rk. In her red tinged tunnel vision she had pursued the bombers blindly, not even registering all of the TIE Interceptors coming at her. It was only his frantic voice calling her by the name her father had favored over the radio that had awakened her to her situation.
“Bo!” his voice called in her mind, awakening memories of her father and also of her time in the covert with Din. They really were quite similar. Both men upheld their respective creeds well, and thought first of others before themselves. Both were accomplished warriors with gentle hearts. Perhaps in another life, Adonai and Din might have fought together for the honor of Mandalore.
How unexpected that a man she had bitterly considered ending once and for all could have become so important in her life that she could no longer imagine a life without his companionship, as well as that of his son. When they had first met, she had scorned him for the cult that had raised him. Yet now, she had lived among the people of that cult, and found among them renewed spirit and honor for herself. And how she had grown to enjoy the nights around the fire, partaking once again in the comradery that had eluded her since the death of her family.
When they had retaken Nevarro, and the Armorer had entreated her to take her helmet off, Bo had felt her world collapsing again. As the Armorer walked her through the covert, each child of the watch slowly turning to face her, she felt her heart beat faster and faster. It did not matter that she had been given a destiny and mission by the wizened leader of the covert; she was being asked to leave the covert, the only meaningful connections she had left. As she came to stand next to the Gauntlet, she cast her gaze quickly toward Din and Grogu, realizing in that moment that their reactions were the ones she feared most. After the Armorer had proclaimed her status and mission to the covert, she had quickly walked up the ramp into the fighter, certain she did not want anyone to see the powerful emotions she felt and knew were playing across her face.
And yet mere moments later, she had heard the sound of a whirring bassinet followed by footsteps. Turning around, she saw Clan Mudhorn easing into position aboard the Gauntlet. Her eyes locked on Din’s helmet, wishing for once she could see his face, could see what emotion was there. When he looked up from the navigation table, she saw her own eyes reflected in the black mirror of his visor. He said only four words, careful and deliberate, but with a slight tremor as though holding back a flood of emotion.
“This,” he intimated, “is the Way.” And with that, Grogu had jumped from his pram and into her arms. How far away that day seemed, and yet how close. Close to the pledge he had taken to serve her until the end of her days.
Pausing in her journey through the scouting team’s encampment, she looked to the horizon, where the glittering stars of the galaxy met the stark shadow of the lands of her homeworld. She thought about the billions of lives playing out across those stars, and all the untold stories seen only as light in the stark night sky, and wondered if these efforts too might be forgotten to the history of an unforgiving galaxy, lost like so much starlight on a cold night.
She was awakened from her meditation by the feel of small hands patting her left calf. Looking down, she was greeted with a smile and a hushed “Bah?” from Grogu. A smile pursed her lips as she made eye contact with the boy, and as he raised his hands to her, she bent to pick him up, settling him into the crook of her arm. In the child’s eyes, Bo saw the star light reflected again, and her heart swelled.
“The Galaxy is a big place, little one,” she whispered, “Where have you been? Where would you like to go?”
Grogu’s ears lowered, as though he were concentrating on collecting his thoughts for an answer. For a moment, Bo wondered if she were over taxing him, before he looked up at her again, a smile on his lips. He gestured to the ground,, then to Bo herself, and in that moment, the last beskar wall in her heart broke, the emotion of the moment bringing with it a groundswell of feelings complicated and strong. Bo felt the tears fill her eyes. She slowly lowered herself and Grogu to the ground. Safely there, the child hugged her with his small arms, and she held him close to her chest.
🜄🜄🜄
Din rolled over for what must have been the hundredth time, stretching and cracking his joints as he did so, wary of beginning the next day’s journey with sore muscles. Sleeping in his beskar'gam was never an easy proposition in the best of circumstances; on the stark world of Mandalore, he truly wasn’t sure it was possible. Resigning himself, he sat up, taking in the dying fires and clusters of his fellow mandalorians resting themselves. Looking to his left, where he had nestled Grogu in his cape against the cold night air, he discovered that the child had wandered off. Where he may normally have been concerned, however, here in the heart of the camp he knew the child was safe. Sentries had been posted, and IG 12 remained where he had been left. Smiling to himself, Din reasoned the child couldn’t have gone far on foot.
As Din slowly walked through the camp in search of his ward, he noticed that here, in dark hours of the camp, the members of the Children of the Watch and Night Owls, robbed of the light that gave them color, were nearly indistinguishable. The metaphor was not lost on Din. Bo-Katan had brought them together by proclaiming that their differences were less important than what they could accomplish together, and in this moment, while their individual colors, designs, and beliefs were indistinguishable, their status as mandalorians was undeniable.
Lady Bo-Katan Kryze. For most of his life, Din had known the name only as a mythic tragedy, a villain from the annals of mandalorianism. He shook his head, trying to reconcile that ethereal version of her with the version he now knew. She had crashed into his life on a cold day when he was at his lowest, trapped in the hold of a Quarren trawler, clinging to life and hoping to save his son from drowning in his hoverpram. Then out of the sky, she had dropped, making quick work of his captors alongside Koska and Axe. Her hand had reached down and pulled him out of mamacore hold. Seconds later, he had been reunited with Grogu, and as he sat trying to catch his breath, the unimaginable had happened. Her face had been revealed.
Din chuckled to himself, thinking now of how he had dismissed her and her companions without even bothering to meet them properly. How would that younger version of himself have seen him now, helping that same fiery haired woman to retake the world whose culture they shared?When he had brought her to the covert, it had been for protection. He had never expected her to join the ranks. Yet here they were now.
Mission after mission over the long months since that fateful day, she had shown her true colors. He now knew this woman of legend to be more than the stories he had heard. She was a cunning warrior, an honorable leader, and perhaps most amazingly of all, a good friend.
Din frowned at the word and paused his search for Grogu. No, friend wasn’t the right word. For how could such a simple concept as friendship define what he felt for her. What he hoped she felt for him. In seemingly no time at all, they had become near inseparable. They could communicate through mere nods, or tips of the helmet. It seemed to Din that just as Grogu had come into his life and fundamentally changed the way he saw himself, so his time with Bo had fundamentally changed how he saw the world.
Resuming his search, his mind turned to the last thing he had said to her before going to settle the child in for the night. For so many years of his life, Din had served only the needs of his covert, going forth to earn the credits needed to sustain them. To put his own desires ahead of that had been unthinkable before that fateful day when he had first met his son. But now, a mere four years hence, he had begun to think of what he truly wanted from this life. Of what would be best for the child that had changed his life. Of what he might have beyond the tribe. And tonight, he had made a decision that was certain to change his life again, forever. He would serve Bo until the end, loyal to her and Grogu only. This was, his heart now knew, the Way.
🜄🜄🜄
After taking some time to compose herself, Bo felt the tender touch of small hands caressing her jaw. The Child had done his best to comfort her through the pain, and now she looked into his big eyes and smiled.
“Thank you, Grogu,” she whispered. The child settled after nodding his head, and Bo realized how tired he must be. Finding a convenient spot to lay the child down, she curled herself around him, holding him close as he drifted off.
After a moment, she heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind her and then Din Djarin swept around into her line of sight and sat down.
“I found this one wandering,” Bo offered, her eyes fixed to Din’s visor, as though she could see his own eyes, “figured he would be safe here with me.”
Din nodded, leaning back against an outcropping.
“Thank you, Bo,” he replied, “He likes you. I have never seen him take to anyone the way he does with you.”
“And why wouldn’t he?” teased Bo, “I am so welcoming and inviting.”
There was a long pause, as though Din were contemplating. Inside, Bo felt her stomach churning as she awaited his response.
“I know,” He finally replied, “you’re just as soft as your eyes.”
Bo- drew in a sharp breath. Din’s words washed over her like a wave on the shore of Trask.
“I didn’t get a chance to respond to you earlier,” breathed Bo, her eyes searching for some sign of response from Din, “for your pledge.”
Din nodded, before Bo reached a hand out to him.
“Will you join us here?” She asked, the question dancing off of her tongue.
Without a further word, Din eased forward until he and Bo were faced toward each other, the child between them sleeping soundly. And overhead, the stars shone brightly. Tomorrow, they would begin the quest to retake Mandalore. Tomorrow they would face the new reality of their shared future. Tonight, they would find comfort here with each other, no longer alone in the galaxy.
First Piece written in nearly two decades! Hope you enjoyed.