Ad'eta resol
☆☆☆
Cato's eyes flew open and before he had time to take in his surroundings in the slightest, he had rolled over onto his side, opening his mouth to spit out what seemed like an impossible amount of sand onto the dirt beside him. His throat burned and the inside of his mouth felt as dry as a desert—which made sense considering the sand.
But Cato didn't have time to dwell on any of that as a worried coo drew his attention.
Still on the seeing stone, though laying down on his side now, was Grogu, his eyes locked on Cato despite them being heavy with exhaustion and one small hand outstretched towards him, shaking with strain.
"Grogu," Cato rasped, hurrying to stand up as strange dark shapes approached them from the sky. His legs shook and felt like jello, but Cato ignored it and was dragging himself towards Grogu before he was even on his feet. Exhaustion weighed heavy on him, and every muscle in his body felt bruised and spent, his limbs heavy and mind cloudy.
The four dark shapes landed around them with a heavy thud and Cato realised they were droids. Tall, black armoured droids with glowing red eyes and exaggerated forms. In perfect sync with each other, they took a step forwards and down onto the sunken circle.
Cato was only a few steps away when his vision swam, the world warping around him and making his stomach turn. He felt his legs give out and he crashed to the ground, breaking his fall only enough to avoid smacking his head into the stone beneath him.
The sinister marches of the droids drew nearer, and Cato struggled to get back onto his feet, but his body wouldn't listen to him. He tried to force himself to stand, crawl even, but he couldn't do it.
Heaving painful breaths, Cato dragged himself almost to the base of the stone, reaching up to grab Grogu. He had to protect him. He had to keep him safe. He would protect him, even if it meant dying. His fingers brushed against the child's and he felt a faint wash of relief.
But that was all snatched away as a looming shadow lifted Grogu away from him and an iron grip on the back of Cato's neck yanked him away from the stone.
Cato coughed and groaned in pain as he landed on his back, a pulse of throbbing pain going through his head as he hit the ground. "Grogu," He croaked, squinting against the light as he looked up into the expressionless face of one of the droids. Cato rolled onto his side, trying to find the strength to it up. He needed to sit up. He had to find Grogu, he had to get him. He had to get him out of here.
Cold, steel fingers wrapped around Cato's arms, dragging him unceremoniously to his feet.
"Hey!" he snapped, though it came out as a weak garble. He looked around wildly, locating Grogu instantly in the arms of another droid. "Grogu!" he tried to pull his arms out of the grip of the two droids that held him, but it felt like trying to drag an entire starship with just a rope. "Hey!" Cato thrashed and tugged relentlessly, looking around wildly for anything to help him.
He spotted his lightsaber sitting on the sash a couple yards away where he had been a minute ago, laying with his other weapons. It felt like it was taunting him. Cato looked around for any alternatives, and seeing the droids starting to power up for flight turned back to the lightsaber. "Come on, come on," he whispered desperately under his breath, focusing on the lightsaber. "You can do it, come on,"
A loud roar filled his ears and he felt a familiar seer of heat just shy of uncomfortable as the droids lifted a couple inches off the ground suddenly. Cato was suddenly lifted by one of the droids, arms pinned painfully behind his back as they started to rise.
"Fuck!" Cato hissed angrily as his saber remained unmoving on the ground, growing steadily farther and farther away. Five feet, ten feet, fifteen—
"Cato!"
"Din," Cato wheezed, chest starting to hurt at the position he was being held in. "Din!" He tried again, but they were already so high up and climbing fast, he wasn't sure if Din had heard him. He looked over to the droid directly across from him, seeing Grogu in its arms. "I'm sorry," He whispered, knowing neither of them could hear him. Din was already a tiny speck on the top of the mountain and growing smaller by the second.
Clouds blew past them as they rose, moisture clinging to Cato and chilling him, though he didn't notice it through the frustration. He couldn't do anything. Even if he could fight these things‚ which is his state he clearly couldn't—he had no way to get to Grogu. And if he did, they were already so far up, they would just plummet to their deaths. Fuck!
The air grew thinner and Cato's head started to feel light. He thought he maybe saw a ship below them, but he couldn't trust himself to be sure. He hoped Din was okay. He didn't know what had happened after he tried meditating and when he had woken up everything had happened so quickly...but if Din hadn't been with him, it must have meant there was a threat elsewhere. Cato hoped he wasn't hurt.
Wait...had someone else been with him? Cato wracked his memory, trying to picture the moment from a few seconds ago. Had he been standing with someone else?
Fuck fuck fuck! Useless fucking brain! Cato seethed, his memories even from a minute ago already hazy.
A shadow stretched over them and Cato looked up for the first time, alarmed to see a version of an Imperial cruiser awaiting them above. No no no nonono! Panic built in his chest and he looked over at Grogu, unable to see clearly as his eyes watered with the wind. Fuck!
The droids slowed and the trajectory shifted, and without warning, Cato was hit with heavy oxygen as they entered the ship.
The droids landed without so much as a stumble on the sleek floors, the droid holding Cato almost immediately dropping him back into a standing position. The second droid from earlier stepped to the other side of him and together, started marching Cato towards one of the two hallways off the hangar.
Cato looked over his shoulder to find Grogu, and saw him being carried towards the other hallway by one of the droids, the fourth one in tow.
"Stop it," Cato mumbled, panic and pain washing over him as he was walked away from the child. As the gravity of what was happening set in, Cato managed to dig out any remaining energy and writhed and struggled against the iron grip the droids had on him, trying to get to the kid. He tried to kick the droids away from him, to get a handle on their wiring, to twist out of their grip, anything, anything at all. "Bring him back! Let him go!" he demanded, finding his voice even though it caused his head to throb in pain. Cato lunged to the side, ripping himself out of the hold the droid had on his shoulders and ducking between his two escorts.
He made it a pitiful five steps towards Grogu when the droids grabbed him again with such force that it felt like he had just run into a wall. Cato scrambled to escape their trapping arms, trying to duck under them or pull himself out, but their grip was inescapable.
"Stop it! Let me go! Bring him back, bring him back!" Cato screamed. "I'll kill you! I'll kill every last one of you!" he grunted in pain as his arms were harshly yanked behind his back and held there, and all the while he could see Grogu getting further away. "Bring him back!" he shouted one last time before the two droids and Grogu were gone and Cato was being dragged backwards towards his own fate.
Cato kept struggling, doing everything he could think of to get out of this situation and go find Grogu. He didn't have a choice, there wasn't any other option, he had to find him and save him. He had to protect him, he had to he had to he had to. But even as he told himself that, he felt any remaining traces of energy drain from him.
Hallways passed in a blur, Cato barely aware of time passing, only of the fragmented and looped thoughts running through his mind. The sounds around him were muffled, sounding quiet and indistinct, a high pitched ringing in his ears the only discernible sound.
"Cato Dazhyn, I don't believe we were ever properly introduced," the familiar voice that Cato now knew belonged to Moff Gideon came to greet him as the droids came to a stop, jolting him back to the present.
Cato was kneeling on the floor of a hallway, his arms held at a painful angle behind his back and Moff Gideon himself in front of Cato, looking down at him with a cold smile.
"The child," Cato rasped. "Take me to him," he demanded.
Gideon scoffed quietly, his smile growing. "That's not how this works," He said. "You have your own fate to meet here,"
Cato's stomach twisted at his words and a heavy blanket of dread washed over him. "Am I here to die?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
"No," Gideon said calmly. "You are here because certain people are invested in your future and what you can do for our future," Cato didn't like the sound of that. Gideon leaned over Cato a little, tilting his head as he stared down at him. "You possess extraordinary abilities, Cato. You are able to resist and come back from things few people can," Moff Gideon looked over Cato's face intently, making Cato's discomfort grow. "We want to see how far you can be pushed before you fall,"
The droid holding Cato yanked him to his feet without warning, drawing a small grunt of pain from the man. Cato's breaths were growing shorter and he struggled to maintain a state of semi-calmness. "So you're going to torture me," he said, his mouth feeling dry as the words left his tongue.
Behind Moff Gideon, a door slid open revealing the plain interior of an empty room. Gideon made a welcoming gesture and Cato was pushed forwards a couple steps before being shoved roughly into the dimly lit room, just barely breaking his fall with his hands.
"I won't torture you," He said. Cato picked himself up off the ground to face him, wondering if he could attack him right now. "I've found someone who has a great deal invested in your suffering,"
Movement in the corner drew Cato's attention and he watched apprehensively as a figure stepped from the shadow and into the light.
As their features came into the light, Cato swore his heart stopped for a moment.
A red haired woman stood before Cato now, her straight hair still cropped just above the shoulder, though now one side was cleanly shaven. She no longer wore scavenged armour either, now dressed in crisp black clothes, giving her an even more foreboding aura. The most noticeable change to her though were the mirrored scars on her face, extending from the corners of her mouth along her cheeks towards her ears, making an image of a twisted and scarred smile.
Her thin lips twisted into a cold smile and her silver eyes flashed. "Hello Cato," she greeted calmly, though a gleeful smugness was present in her tone. "I've waited a long time for this," Cato stared in horror at her as she regarded him with thinly veiled triumph. "Do you remember me?"
The name caught in his throat as fear closed in around him and bile rose in his throat at the prospect of paying for his past. He swallowed hard, and finally managed to speak, her name leaving his lips in a hoarse, disbelieving whisper that hid none of his fear.
"Aezaeli,"
☆
Trask was just as overcast and busy as last time Din had been there. He stepped off of the Slave I, looking around with a heavy feeling in his chest and after telling Shand and Fett that he would be back in a moment, he set off towards the industrial shipping yard.
There was a horrible hollowness that was consuming him as more time passed. He let this happen. He shouldn't have left Cato and Grogu. He should have gotten back to them in time. They shouldn't have gone to Tython. He was supposed to protect them, Grogu was his charge, he had been tasked with returning the child to his people safely and now he was with Moff Gideon who was conducting experiments. And Cato...Din had promised that he would be there for Cato through everything, keep him from harm and Din had done neither of those.
Grogu's fate with Moff Gideon filled Din with anger and sadness, the idea of the child being used for experiments making Din curl his hands into fists to contain the flare of anger he felt. Cato's fate on the other hand left a void of dread in his chest. He didn't know what Cato would face at the hands of Moff Gideon and the speculations he had come up with made his stomach twist.
The storage yard was devoid of people as Din wound through the shipping crates, trying to shut out his thoughts and the sickening feelings that plagued him. The crates loomed all around him, casting shadows over the gravel ground.
A couple times, Din thought he heard someone move up ahead or over the tops of the crates, but when he looked there was no one.
Keeping his senses on high alert, he walked through the maze of crates, retracing his steps towards the open space by the water where he had found Cato last time they were here.
When he reached the open space, he found no one there. The whole shipping yard seemed dead and desolate, devoid of life.
There was the crunch of gravel behind him and he looked over his shoulder, seeing someone standing in the shadow of the crates. Din turned around fully to face them, hand hovering over his blaster.
A Quarren stood by the crates, holding a hooked spear at the ready and looking at Din coldly. "Why are you here, Mandalorian?" they growled. "This yard and docks are private. You need to leave,"
"Wait," Din raised his hands slightly. "Wait, I'm looking for Senaar," he said. "Can you bring me to her?"
The Quarren looked Din up and down and lowered the spear, but kept it at the ready. Then he turned and began walking away, not speaking a word.
Din hesitated a moment, but then followed, keeping a bit of distance between him and the Quarren.
The journey was quick—or maybe it just felt that way to Din since he couldn't think properly right now. The Quarren had led him to a massive shipping crate with an odd spider-like symbol stamped on the side. Inside the crate, it had been pitch black until a trap door opened in the floor and led into a network of tunnels beneath the ground.
The Quarren had led Din through the tunnels to a massive set of blast doors with two guards stationed out front. The Quarren spoke with the guards briefly, gesturing at Din. The guards stepped aside and the blast doors slid open, revealing a massive room filled with crates, tables, digital maps, computer banks, and on the opposite wall a massive throne on a tall dais all made of scrap metal, faded and tattered banners hanging behind it. The largest banner was the same rust red and white of the exterior of the crate they had entered through, a more intricate version of the spider design printed on it. The smaller two on either side were different colours and featured symbols Din couldn't decipher from here and didn't care to.
As he entered, the people moving around the massive room all turned to look at him, moving up to watch as he walked towards the base of the throne, where lounging on the massive sculpture of metal was Adrestia.
"Mandalorian," she stood up as Din approached and descended the steps of the dais, waving off the onlookers. "I wondered when you would come by," she smiled as she approached, her brown eyes searching him up and down. She looked past him and her brow furrowed, her eyes darting around the room.
Din felt his stomach knot up with anxiety as her warmer expression melted off and gave way to a suspicious one, eyes narrowed.
She brought her gaze back to him, eyes locked on his, even through the dark visor of his helmet.
"Where is Cato?"
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Yeah, so you know how half an hour ago I was like: Yeah, probably won't post another chapter for a week, sorry! Basically I forgot that I had almost this entire chapter written.
Anyhow, Aezaeli is back and she is PISSED. Which for those of you who do not remember, Aezaeli is a person from Cato's past (she appeared in the bonus chapter for book 1 titled: Motok, Cyrkon) who had attempted to sell Cato to the Empire while he was on Cyrkon about three days after he and Din left Kappa V. Cato killed two members of her crew and maimed her and the remaining two (though one of her crew did escape the entire bloodbath unscathed bc he was not there). So now she has returned, working with Gideon and is gonna enjoy tormenting Cato.
On the other hand, Din went to Adrestia, so now the leader (though Cara may force her to be co-leader) of the "Lesbians for Cato's Protection" squad is now joining the party.
Cato is not going to have time to process things. He basically has been sliding down the side of a mountain this entire season/book and last episode he just fell off a cliff. He has since landed, but the ground is gonna shatter underneath him before he can get his footing. So, yay!
My predictions for the format of next chapter will be that it is mostly from the perspective of Din & co, though it seems likely I will have some sections be focused on Cato.
Moving forward, there is a pretty overarching warning for violence (specifically torture) on sections/chapters focused on Cato. As stated in the beginning of the book, warnings will be put at the beginning of each chapter that it applies to, but just as a note from here until the end it's pretty violence heavy.
also, not completely happy with this chapter, feels a little disjointed, but maybe that works??? Idk, let me know. Regardless of whether or not it works, I'll probably end up rewriting portions of it to fix the flow.
Thank you! now I probably won't post a chapter for a week (watch me be wrong about that too)
–Tree