found. | Din Djarin

Seven

"Wake up Mandalorians. This cannot wait until morning."

We jump awake to a droid talking at us, Din's hand is on his blaster and mine's pointing my ignited saber at the threat, only to find it being a mangled droid in the wreckage but that doesn't calm Din's nerves one bit.

Then we see the Frog Lady beside it and somehow that's more terrifying. "Do not be alarmed. I bypassed the droids security protocols and accessed its vocabulator."

While I'm impressed Din is far from that.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asks as he shoves his blaster back into his holster and I disengage my lightsaber, straightening myself up from where I slept on him and notice the cover of frost over his armour. "That droid is a killer."

The child is still in a sleepy state as he looks around in confusion and I tuck him back under the blanket to keep him warm.

"Is this really necessary?" I ask looking at the droid and pull the blanket back up over my arms. "It is the middle of the night, not the time for conversation."

"These eggs are the last brood of my life cycle," she says and the child looks at them a bit too happily so I keep a firm hold on him. "My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet that is hospitable to our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line."

I go quiet, her words pressing a nerve I've long tried to avoid. One I've avoided ever since the day I become Duchess, the last of my line besides Bo Katan. And not just that, but the weight that's been on my shoulders my entire life as one of the last Jedi. To continue the order.

"I must ask that you hold yourselves true to the deal that you agreed to."

Din and I look at each other and then at the wreckage we're in.

"Look Lady, the deal is off," he says roughly. "We're lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives."

"We're sorry okay, we really are. I understand having fought and suffered too much to resign yourself to your line ending," I tell her quietly. "We'll do whatever we can but we're hardly in a position to just pick up and leave this planet."

"I thought honouring one's word was a part of the Mandalorian code, and protecting the innocent was that of the Jedi. I guess those are just stories for children."

Din and I look at each other and know she's got us with our hands tied.

He sighs heavily as he stands and aggressively picks up the toolbox. "This was not part of the deal."

I follow him out and we survey the damage from outside once again, it doesn't look any better than it did a few hours ago.

"I don't suppose you could use the force to fix this?"

"Unfortunately that's not how the force works," I regretfully inform him and he sighs again.

"Are you good at fixing ships?"

"Unfortunately that's a no as well, I was a ground commander, not a pilot."

He sighs once again, he might not be a man of many words but he sure is a man of many sighs. "Kill anything that jumps out then?"

"That I can do."

~

I sit with a blaster and a saber, keeping an eye out as he works on the ship, still mildly traumatised from the wampa's on Hoth. Eventually the kid waddles out as Din's working on the ship.

"How about you come over here, give me a hand," he says to the kid. "Make yourself useful."

"He won't be much more help than me," I say going to pick him up so he's not walking around in the snow but he continues to waddle off. "Hey, come here."