Darasuum // Din Djarin Mandalorian ♠️

Chapter Thirteen - Leaving

Six years ago...

"Take this," Obi-Wan told me, placing something gently into my palm.

I looked down. "What is it?"

The man shook his head, swallowing almost nervously. "It's not important right now."

"Can I open it?" I asked my father.

"No," he replied sternly. "You'll know when to open it."

Looking at the letter he had handed me, I faltered at the name on the front. "No one's called me that in a long time," I commented.

"It's your name."

"I've had a lot of names Kenobi."

He winced at the name. "Can you call me father? Just once."

Watching his eyes, I saw something different in them. I had recognised the man almost immediately when I saw him with Han back at Tantooine despite the grey hair on his head and the wrinkled skin he had gotten. He was old, decades having gone since I saw him last, and he was no longer the man I knew. The one who I had waited for on Stewjon or the one that my mother had told me stories about before bed. He was a broken version of that man, but he was him nonetheless.

"Did you look for me?" I asked suddenly.

"I scoured every corner of the universe looking for you Karishma," he told me, "but when I couldn't feel you through the Force anymore..." he paused, eyes glistening with tears. "I thought I had lost you like I lost your mother."

Shaking my head, I could feel my own tears brimming. "I thought you had abandoned me. I thought you didn't want me."

"I did," he admitted. "I don't deny that, but I do regret it. I have regretted it every day of my life since I saw you last, but never question whether I wanted you or not. You were and are the most important thing in this universe to me ad'ika."

I wiped away a falling tear, watching him carefully. "I was a mistake. Made from young stupidity."

His expression turned confused. "Who told you that?" he asked.

"Maul," I breathed.

His expression turned sour and yet I could still see the softness behind it. "I loved your mother. More than I can ever begin to explain. If she had asked Karishma..." he paused. "I would have given up the Jedi Order for her."

"What if I had asked?" I posed. "Kriff knows I wanted to."

"If you had asked, I would have fled the Order before you could question it. I would do anything for you."

ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ

Six years later...

Anything for me. He would have done anything for me, and he did. I had chased after Maul, causing him to follow me. That was when Obi-Wand Kenobi faced Darth Vader again.

I had never given into his request. I never got to call him my father again, and I never would. For some reason, that ate away at me more than his death. He had asked one thing of me, and I couldn't do it.

I held the letter in my hand. Sometimes I just stared at it. Other times I felt the paper between my fingers, but I had never opened it. The seal was still untouched, not a single piece of it crumpled. 

Karishma Kenobi, it read.

It was a name I hadn't heard in a long time. My father was the last person to call me that and he had died shortly after. Obi-Wan Kenobi. The greatest Jedi Knight of his time alongside Anakin Skywalker. That's what they said. The stories they told about him. So much for his dedication to upholding the Jedi Code.

A drop of water fell from my hair, hitting the envelope in my hands. I got up off the bed quickly, wiping away the water before it could ruin the paper.

"Kriff," I cursed, quickly placing the object onto the desk in my room. If I held onto it any longer, I would only ruin it. I couldn't destroy it. I wouldn't.

I had washed the muck from my body, fearful that I might blemish the colour of it, but I hadn't tied my hair up. How idiotic of me.

"Solo," Mando's voice called from outside my door as a knock sounded.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to look at the closed entrance.

"We're about to jump out of hyperspace," he informed me.

"I'll be there in a minute," I replied. "Just out of the shower."

I didn't gain a response from the man, which was a response in itself. It had been a lie, having turned the shower off almost an hour ago. I had been staring at my father's letter for that long. I didn't look at it again, turning away and heading out the door of my room. I made for the cockpit.

"Where's the bounty?" I asked Mando, taking my seat beside him.

He gestured beside him. The child was awake now, black, beading eyes staring at the two of us. I couldn't help but frown at the smile, the creature was giving me. We were handing him over to the Empire.

"I don't remember that one," Mando spoke up, turning my attention to him. Din. His name was Din.

"What?" I asked.

"That scar," he explained, gesturing to my shoulder.

I had taken off the leather jacket I usually wore, leaving my skin in plain sight. A large burn, white with age ran across my shoulder blade. In fact, it moved across my entire back.

"It's not new," Din added. "I would have noticed you getting a burn like that."

Gulping, I began to initiate the landing gear as we prepared to jump out of Hyperspeed. "I got it escaping my home world."

"Where's it now?" he retaliated. "Your home world?"

I sent him a small smile. "Gone."

Shaking his head, the man pushed forward on the lever beside him, beads of light disappearing as the planet of Nevarro came into view.

"I'm sorry," he apologised.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" I posed.

"You lost your home."

"It's only a place," I began. "Home isn't just a planet. It's where your heart is."

"And where's yours?" he asked, digging slightly. "With Leia and your brother?"

I shook my head, not minding the nudging he was doing into her life. "We moved around too much for anywhere to feel like home. My brother's ship came close."

"But not home?"

"No," I breathed. "I've yet to find home."

"Well," Mando added, his tone turning brighter. "I don't know about you, but I can tell you with certainty that Nevarro is not it."

I laughed lightly at that, eyes on the planet below. "With that, I can agree."