𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘 - DIN DJARIN

Chapter 19: The Culmination

Gideon raises his brow at you, offering a shrug. "Then we'll just have to kill him."

Your heart falls into your stomach at his words, but you know he won't be able to take out Din easily—and that thought reassures you.

Meanwhile, inside the cantina, Cara's just helped Din get back up onto his feet, and no later is she scrambling around for additional weapons from the dead bodies surrounding them. Karga spins around to face them, his desperation evident.

"I say we hear him out," he suggests, and Cara scoffs at his words.

"The minute we open that door, we're dead," she asserts, a haunted tone in her voice as she pauses her work to give Karga a serious look.

"We're dead if we don't!" Karga retaliates. "At least out there, we've got a shot."

"That's easy for you to say," Cara remarks, her own panic obvious as she voices her deepest fears. "I'm a Rebel Shock Trooper. They'll upload me to a Mind Flayer."

"Those aren't real," Karga assures her. "That was just wartime propaganda."

"Well, I don't care to find out," Cara snaps, her brow furrowed as she looks at him. "I'm shooting my way out of here."

Karga sighs lightly, looking back at Din and raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "What about you, Mando?"

Din swallows hard, trying to push his emotions back as he focuses on the situation at hand—needing to put all his energy into fixing it. "I know who he is," Din confesses lowly, his helmet that's been staring at the ground finally looking up at Karga and Cara. They both freeze in place, staring at him with curious eyes. Din pauses, needing a moment before he reveals the truth. "It's Moff Gideon."

"No," Cara insists almost breathlessly, her eyes widened in disbelief. "Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes."

"It's him," Din assures her. "He knew my name."

"So?" Karga scoffs. "What does that prove?"

"I haven't heard that name spoken since I was a child," Din confesses half-truthfully. You're his special exemption. When he hears you say it, it's more of a sacred chant than it is a saying of his name.

"On Mandalore?" Karga inquires.

"I was not born on Mandalore," Din informs him.

"But you're a Mandalorian," Karga says, evidently confused.

"Mandalorian isn't a race," Cara tells him gently.

"It's a Creed," Din finishes for her, taking a deep breath as he recounts his story. He tells them about how he and his parents were forced out of their homes and into the chaotic streets of his home planet, an attack led by battle droids plaguing his village. Din's practically numb to the pain as he talks of his parents getting him to safety at the price of their lives, and him almost having the pay the same thing—until a Mandalorian came to his rescue. They helped him to get away, bringing him to safety shortly after he was found. "I was a foundling," he says. "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 adds on.

"He says he needs us, which means the child got away safely," Din reflects, hoping with all his heart that it's true. "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 demands, continuing to sweep throughout the cantina as Karga helps himself to a much-needed drink.

Din holds back a scoff as he tries the commlink again. "Come in, Kuiil," he says, grimacing when he hears static in response. "Kuiil?" Din shakes his head at more silence. "Nothing."