Cataclysm ─── The Mandalorian. ¹

xli. numb

Greef shakes his head. "We're dead if we don't. At least out there, we've got a shot."

"That's easy for you to say," Cara says. "I'm a Rebel Shock Trooper. They'll upload me to a Mind Flayer."

"Those aren't real," Greef disagrees, shifting his blaster to his other hand so he can flex his fingers. "That was just wartime propaganda."

"Well, I don't care to find out," she snaps. "I'm shooting my way out of here."

Zoya hefts her blaster and turns, eyes cold. "So am I."

Greef turns. "What about you, Mando?"

Din, staring at Zoya—who doesn't bother acknowledging him, something aching in his chest, looks down at the floor, speaking past the tightness in his throat. "I know who the other man is. It's Moff Gideon."

"No," Cara says immediately. "Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes."

"It's him. He knew my name."

Greef's shoulders lift. "So? What does that prove?"

"I haven't heard that name spoken since I was a child—from anyone other than Zoya," he adds tightly, casting a glance her way, one she doesn't meet. Her mouth tenses, and her jaw hardens as she looks towards the window, the only sign that she's heard him.

"On Mandalore?" Greef prompts.

"I was not born on Mandalore," Din replies.

Greef frowns. "But you're a Mandalorian."

Cara steps in. "Mandalorian isn't a race."

"It's a Creed," Din finishes. Silently, he recalls the death of his parents, the Mandalorians that had descended from the heavens, the one that had carried him into the unraveling skies, cerulean and shattered without his parents by his side, lifting him away from the blossoms of sweltering fire curling into the air. His mouth tightens. "I was a foundling. They raised me in the Fighting Corps. I was treated as one of their own. When I came of age, I was sworn to the Creed. The only record of my family name was in the registers of Mandalore. Moff Gideon was an ISB Officer during the purge. That's how I know it's him."

"That's how he knows who we all are," Cara mutters.

Din nods. "He says he needs us, which means the child got away safely. I was worried when the Ugnaught didn't respond, but if they'd captured the kid, we'd already be dead."

"Hail them again," Cara says as she rises, brushing past Zoya with a comforting touch to the curve of her shoulder.

Din digs the commlink from his belt, pressing a button as he raises it to his helmet. "Come in, Kuiil. Kuiil?" He clenches his teeth together. "Nothing."

"They might've jammed the link," Cara replies, pressing against the wall with her heavy blaster raised.

The comm beeps suddenly, and the room is filled with the sound of the child's gurgling. Zoya steps forward, the cool relief swelling in her chest overwriting her anger for the briefest of moments.

"Kuiil has been terminated." IG-11's mechanic voice comes through the link.

"What did you do?" Din clips, voice hard.

"I am fulfilling my base function," the droid replies.

"Which is?" Din says tensely.