The waves lapped softly at the sandy shore beneath my feet as I stood in front of Din Djarin. The air was calm and warm, making for a comfortable atmosphere. His large hands encompassed my own as he stood hand in hand, facing one another. The armorer stood off to the side as the rest of the covert watched on with interest. It wasn't everyday someone in the covert got married after all.
"We are here for the joining of Din Djarin and Celeste Delius. You may say the sacred vows." The armorer said
Din squeezed my hands tightly as he took in a noticeably deep breath. I squeezed his hands in return, feeling unbelievably nervous and excited. Once we spoke the vows, we would be married. Din would become my Riduur and I would be his.
Din nodded to me and I opened my mouth to speak. The both of us said the vows together in sync. "Mhi solus dhar'tome, Mhi me'dinui an, Mhi ba'juri verde."
Once we finished saying the vows, the Mandalorian covert erupted into applause. They banged their vambraces together and cheered for us. A wide smile broke out on my face and I let out a small laugh of joy. Din chuckled and leant forward, placing his forehead against mine. I gripped his hands tighter as we stood together.
"May it be known in song that you are now one. And clan Djarin is officially a clan of three." The armorer announced.
"This is the way." All of the Mandalorians cheered.
"I guess that makes me master Djarin now." I said quietly so only Din could hear me.
"Yes, Cyar'ika, it does." Din said happily as he moved to wrap his arms around my waist in a tight hug. I buried my face in his shoulder as I wrapped my own arms around his shoulders. In this moment, it felt like my life had finally fallen into place. All of the pieces that I had been missing had finally been found and fallen into place, creating a beautiful mosaic that was my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lighting in the cave was strangely warm and welcoming for a place that was underground. The stone walls weren't damp or ominous, and the laughter that echoed around the walls made it all that much more comfortable.
My knees were pulled up to my chest as I sat on the floor In between Din's legs. He sat above me on a rock with his hands placed on my shoulders. We had been married for only an hour and the covert had already started to warm up to me.
"So blaster fire did nothing against this creature?" One of the Mandalorians asked me. A large group of us were sitting in one of the caves, and I somehow found myself retelling tales of our adventures.
"Nope, nothing was working. But then this genius here had an idea. One that would almost get him killed for what felt like the thousandth time." I said with a smile. It was funny to look back on it now, now that I knew he was alive and he was by my side.
"What was the plan?" One of the foundlings asked eagerly. I smiled softly at the attentiveness they were giving me.
"To get eaten by the Krayt dragon." I said with a shake of my head, mocking disapproval for my riduur.
"He stood by a bantha that was carrying explosives and just let the Krayt dragon swallow him whole. He then came flying out like nothing had even happened." I said in exasperation
"I do not know your riduur well, but that does seem like something he would do." One of the Mandalorians from the war party spoke up
"You have your hands full, Jedi." One of the others said, causing the room to fall into laughter. I looked up fondly at Din and held onto one of his hands.
"I definitely do." I uttered
Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of a ship landing echoed throughout the caves. I looked towards the entrance with furrowed brows, who would be landing here? I don't remember any other Mandalorian having a ship aside from Din and Bo, and they're both here.
Paz Vizsla was the first to stand up, he looked tense as he started to make his way over to the entrance of the cave. I glanced up at Din again before I pushed myself up onto my feet. Din stood up alongside me as did all the others.
"Captain Carson Teva, Adelphi Rangers." A man's voice called out.
"Does that name sound familiar to you?" I asked Din as we approached the mouth of the cave with the others.
"It does." He replied.
"I have a time pressing matter to attend to." Carson called out
"Clear out, blue boy." Paz called out as he rounded the corner and stood at the entrance.
"The new republic isn't welcome here." Paz stated
"Sorry for dropping in unannounced, but if I'd given warning, your settlement would've cleared out before I ever hit atmosphere."
Din and I walked out from within the cave, my eyes immediately fell on the man who was standing with his hands raised in the air. He wore a bright orange pilot suit that all the new republic pilots were, but this man was definitely familiar. He was the one who had helped us when we were attacked by spiders, but then again he was the reason we were on that frozen planet in the first place.
"How did you manage to find us? Mandalorians pride ourselves on our secrecy." Din asked
"Fortunately, someone I served with in the Rebellion is amongst your ranks." Carson stated. My brows furrowed as I looked around at the other Mandalorians, only to find that they were staring at me. I understand why, but I didn't fight in the rebellion. R5 then rolled in and beeped at Carson. I sighed in understanding and turned back to the man in question.
"Thanks, R5." Carson saluted the droid
"The entire covert will now have to relocate." Din said in annoyance
"Or we could kill him. Stay right here." Paz said. Din turned to face the man in a way that told me he was indignant about that idea.
"This man cut me a break once and now I'm returning the favor. Clear out, blue." Din stated
"Greef Karga sent this holo-message." Carson stated as he reached into his pocket. The sudden movement caused the Mandalorians to tense up and raise their blasters in defense.
Carson held his hand out as he slowed his movements, he cautiously pulled a holopad out of his pocket and tossed it over to Din. He caught it with both of his hands and held it out in front of him.
"Nevarro is under siege by pirates. He's asking for help." Carson explained. Din placed the puck in his pocket and walked over to Carson.
"Why are you really here?" Din asked
"They're about to blow Nevarro to hell." Carson said
"Then call in a strike. We don't even have ships." Din stated
Coruscant doesn't care." Carson said. The two men started to walk further away from us, so I decided to move from my place beside the covert to stand beside Din so I could hear the plan.
"Karga is your friend. You won't let him die." Carson said
"What's in it for you?" Din asked him
"The New Republic has to know that the Empire is growing again." Carson said
"And you think the pirate king has something to do with it?" Din asked
"I can't say for sure, but something doesn't smell right." Carson sighed
"Look, it's not your fight. I just came to tell you, your friend is in danger and I thought you should know." Carson finished and turned away from us, heading back towards his ship.
"I know you'll relocate anyway, but you have my word, I will not reveal your location. Sorry to intrude." Carson said. He then closed the canopy on his ship and powered up the engines. I watched as he took off and started to head back into the atmosphere.
"So, what are you thinking?" Bo-Katan asked. I almost jumped, I didn't know she had joined us.
"He's right. I gotta help the guy." Din said as he held the holopad in his hand
"You can't do it alone." Bo-Katan said. She was probably right, as much as I like to think that the two of us could rock up to Nevarro and blow them out the sky, we would have a better chance with the entire covert on our side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The entire Mandalorian covert were sat in one of the cave rooms, a fire lit up the dark space as Din confronted them all. I sat on one of the bench shaped stone beside Bo-Katan and Grogu.
"Now, many of you don't know Greef Karga. And those that do fought against him when you rescued me and my riduur from his ambush many cycles ago on the streets of Nevarro." My chest stirred with fondness as he called me his riduur for the first time since our marriage.
Since then, he's had a change of heart and has risked his life to save mine as well as the foundling in my charge." Din explained as he paced back and forth in front of the fire. The Mandalorians talked quietly amongst themselves as they took in his words.
"I stand before you to petition an intervention. To help rescue Nevarro before it's too late." Din said. The room fell into silence as they thought about what he was proposing.
"I am in no position to ask any more of you. However..." Din was cut off by the louder chattering of the Mandalorians.
"However, the enemy that decimated this very covert were Imperials, not Greef Karga's bounty hunters. Greef Karga is now a High Magistrate and has offered me a tract of land on his independent home world. Perhaps it is time for us to live in the light once again on a planet where we are welcome. So our culture may flourish and our children can feel what it is to play in the sunlight." Din stated. I smiled softly at his strong speech. He would make a good ruler of Mandalore if he so chose to be.
Din then walked over to the armorer to hand her back the large forging hammer that was used to keep a civil discussion. Once he had handed it over, he walked over to take his place beside me on the bench.
"Does anyone else wish to speak?" The armorer asked
"It's up to them now." Din said to Bo and I
"I do." Paz Vizsla said after a beat of silence. He stood up from his seat and walked over to take the welding hammer from the armorer.
"I was on Nevarro that night. I fought against Greef Karga and his hunters. I saw my brothers and sisters fall at the hands of the Imperial butchers that hunted us in tree sewers. I saw many die to save the life of this one, tiny foundling." Paz stated. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from speaking up and lashing out at him.
"And now we are asked to sacrifice yet again. The question we should be asking ourselves is, why? Why should we lay our lives down yet again?" Paz stopped speaking and took a long pause, allowing his question to set in. Din was tense beside me as he waited for the man to continue.
"Because we are Mandalorians." His change in tone surprised me, I was expecting him to not side with us at all.
"I have had my disagreements with this man, but he risked his life to save my son, as did his riduur. And Bo-Katan Kryze did not give up on my child's life even when the rest of us did. These two are asking us to take up arms in the name of a brighter future, and I for one will take up arms to fight by their side." Paz spoke confidently. The other Mandalorians murmured in agreement.
"This is the way." Paz called out
"This is the way." The other mandalorians echoed.
I lent my head against Din's shoulder. "Well, guess we're going back to Nevarro, again."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Din's hand rested on my waist as we lent up against the N-1. Grogu sat on the ship behind us as we all watched Bo-Katan give orders to the Mandalorians who were coming to fight.
"This is a Kom'rk class fighter transport. I'll use this to drop you In and you will operate as a tight military unit. Din Djarin, Celeste Djarin and myself will reinforce from above. If everyone acts as they should, we can use the element of surprise and defeat an enemy that outnumbers us."
After that, the Mandalorians all climbed aboard Bo-Katan's ship. Din and I got into the N-1 with Grogu in the droid pod. It didn't take very long for the war party to take off and exit the planet's atmosphere.
My hand was resting against Din's thigh as we entered hyperspace. It had become a natural thing to do at this point, considering he usually needed both hands to fly the N-1.
"Do you think Greef Karga is gonna be surprised?" I asked Din
"Why? Because of all the Mandalorians that will be fighting for his cause?" He asked me curiously
"Well, yeah, but also because we left for a couple of cycles and came back as a married couple." I said with a small smile
Din chuckled at that. "Yeah, that might catch him off guard."
Din then took his hand off one of the controls and placed it over my own. "You know, even though we are about to go and stop a siege of pirates, I've never been happier."
I smiled at him and shuffled closer so I was leaning up against his side. "Me too."
Din went to say something else but was interrupted by the small cooes of Grogu as he wiggled his way into the cockpit and climbed up on Din's lap.
"Maybe we'll have to take some time to ourselves once this is over. We can leave Grogu with the covert for a few days." Din said as he looked down at the child.
"Yeah, that sounds good." I smiled softly.
Bo-Katan's voice then came over the comms. A holo image also appeared in the cockpit in front of us, displaying a blueprint of the pirate ship we would be taking down.
"Pirate king Gorian Shard is captaining a Cumulus class corsair carrying a complement of snubfighters. It has aerial bombardment capabilities. The N-1 will distract the Corsair and her snubfighters as we drop in to liberate the planet below. Nevarro is an independent planet and no longer under remnant of Imperial or New Republic protection. But it's that very independence that makes it appealing for you to settle. You lived there once, hiding in the sewers. But now, you can be heroes." Bo-Katan finished her speech, placing confidence and determination into every Mandalorian. Now all we have to do is win.