Chapter Text
“Dank farrik, you look great for fifty,” might not have been the most poignant line he’d ever said to a bounty, but it was the truth. After the Client told him that the tracking fob was for a being that was fifty-standard, Din was expecting someone a bit more…geriatric.
Instead, there was a blond twenty-something who was easily deflecting his blaster shots with some sort of laser sword as the fob’s proximity alarm was blaring in his ear, seemingly proving that this was, in fact, the target. At some point his black cloak fell off — probably for more mobility — revealing even more black underneath and a face much younger than expected. Din used a nearby boulder for cover when the ricocheted blaster fire got uncomfortably close, only partially coming back out from behind it to fire another round.
“Fifty?” the blond called back with a raised eyebrow between deflections. “I think you got the wrong guy, Mando.”
Even though Din didn’t doubt that, the fob told a different story. Switching tactics, Din jumped out from behind the rock and released his flame thrower, only for the blond to do an inhuman backflip away. He didn’t even bother wasting his whipcord, knowing he would be able to slice it with his sword, but he was running out of options.
His vibroknife?
I’d rather keep my distance from the green laser sword, thank you very much.
He knew that he could bring in proof of termination for a smaller reward, but at this point Din wasn’t even entirely sure whether this guy was the right target or not, so he would prefer not to use the amban on him.
Changing his HUD to thermals, Din took note of a figure in the stone hut that the blond positioned himself in front of. It seemed way too small for the age description, but at the same time some non-humanoid species were just tiny.
Din nodded his helmet to it. “What about whoever’s in that shack behind you?”
Expression hardening to stone, a shadow fell across the other’s face.
“He is a child.”
And if Din wasn’t at least a little bit scared by the other’s impressive, blasé swordsmanship, the blond’s cold eyes as he uttered those words definitely sent a shock of near fear down Din’s spine. He knew he was dealing with something dangerous, but he was also desperate for the beskar reward.
However…
“Child?” Din’s blaster wavered. His thoughts drifted to the foundlings of the covert and he started to hesitate. “I–”
Shots rang out from behind him, whizzing past his helmet and toward the blond. Whipping around, Din shot at whoever fired on instinct, killing one out of at least seven new hunters. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a blur of black cloth and verdant light shoot past him.
Holy Manda, he’s fast.
The other man used his laser sword and promptly disarmed the figures that were hiding behind the trees faster than Din could entirely process what exactly was going on. While the blond was dealing with the new guys — with a precision that was pointedly not previously aimed at him — Din turned around once again towards the stone building just in time to see another hunter stalk towards it.
He launched his whipcord around the hunter’s ankles to trip him and pulled, dragging him through the dirt and gravel and bringing him closer to Din. As he did that, the blond came back from dispatching the others (Already? That was barely a minute), stepped in front of the prone hunter, retracted his blade, and crouched down to his level.
With a wave of his hand, the blond spoke in a far-off voice, “You will fly off-world with the rest of your gang and forget about this place and bounty.”
“I will fly off-world with the rest of my gang and forget about this place and bounty.”
In an instant, the other man reignited the sword and cut the cord around the hunter's ankles in one clean, practiced slice, making Din stiffen. But the hunter simply got up and started to walk towards where he came from with no hesitation. As he walked past Din, he caught the glassiness of the hunter’s eyes and felt a pit in his stomach.
“Now how did you—”
“And drop any pucks and fobs on you,” the blond (wizard?) called out to the hunter, to which he emptied the contents of his pockets onto the ground without missing a beat and kept walking. The blond walked over first to where his cloak fell earlier in the fight and put it back on, and then to the few items that were now on the ground. He pocketed the bounty items before turning around and walking towards Din. He made eye contact through the tinted visor, and, although he was now close enough to realize that the other man was actually shorter than himself, that unwavering gaze made Din feel that same fear from before.
What the hell.
Mouth dry, he continued from where he was cut off, "How did you— Why would you let them go like that?”
The blond tilted his head in questioning, blue eyes boring into his own.
“Do you really think that they’ll come back?” It was a rhetorical question. Anyone that would have seen that display of… magic?, he guessed, would be convinced that those hunters wouldn’t come back.
And then there was the other bantha in the room.
“Why haven’t you done that,” he pointed off in the distance where the hunters went off to, “to me yet?” Din almost felt like he was being toyed with; that he wasn’t even worth the time of whatever sorcerer whose den he’d wandered into.
But at that question, the shorter man’s features softened.
“You felt… different.” He shook his head and muttered the next bit, “At the very least like you wouldn’t hurt a kid.”
The other man released a breath and reestablished eye contact.
“Don’t make me regret this decision. I try not to make it a habit of forcing people what to do and I’d rather not with you. So take this as a warning and go.” And with that, he walked back towards the stone structure.
With his back to Din.
Who was a hunter.
It would be so easy to just–
“Don’t even think about it,” he called from over his shoulder, turning his head just enough to see his eyes and knowing that it would be dangerous to engage.
He swallowed thickly. Din weighed his options and couldn’t help himself now that he knew a child was involved. Hand twitching, he called out, “But what about the tracker?”
“What about it?” His gloved hand came up (only one glove?), gestured, and he heard a crack from his pocket followed by the fob going silent for the first time since landing planetside.
Ok, I’m just going to ignore that and how he can most likely do that to my head even with my helmet on.
“What about any more hunters? Their fobs?”
The blond stilled. Back still facing away.
“This probably wasn’t the first time you’ve had to deal with them, am I right?”
“I can deal with them just fine.”
But Din could see the tightness in his shoulders, even through his newly donned robe. He was obviously capable enough to ‘deal with them just fine’, but if this was a commonplace occurrence then it was only a matter of time before he got worn down by fighting for himself and protecting the child.
But, at the end of the day, it wasn’t his problem. As much as it would be worth to turn in this bounty and get the reward, him being dead would be a lot worse for the covert than him regrettably missing out on a beskar payout. And from what he could see, if this sword-wielding wizard actually put up an effort against Din, his head would be caved in before realizing what had even happened.
So with that, Din turned around and reluctantly started to walk off.
This will make my reputation take a hit, but at least I’ll be in one piece. Osik, they said this would be a relatively easy job. Hopefully, I’ll be able to just lay low and–
“Wait.”
Stopping and looking over his shoulder, Din saw the blond facing him once again; his face was calm, and yet gears were clearly turning in his head.
“You said fifty years old?”
“Yeah?”
The other man stood still for another moment.
“I want to hire you.”
Din never thought he’d see a fifty-year-old baby, but here one was. It turned out Grogu was the actual target of the fob, and he had no idea what Imperial remnants wanted to do with a literal child but it probably wasn’t anything good.
But if I could somehow take and sneak him out… dank farrik I’m not doing that to an infant. I’m not a baby snatcher. Plus, I don’t even think I would be able to with this wizard around.
“I can deal with the bounties on me, that’s nothing new, but if now there's something out for Grogu…” The other man was pacing around, pushing the hoverpram carrying the baby, who was giggling from the ride he was getting. As the other man was still pacing and talking to himself, Din took in his surroundings. They were in a modest room with a small kitchen that took up the corner, a few miscellaneous furniture pieces, a little stone fireplace.
But more notable were the flimsi books, holopads, and relics sprawled all over the place.
Piled on the kitchen table, on every shelf, over the floor; seemingly spilling out from every crevasse was something, and all with a layer of dust on top of everything, making it feel closer to an abandoned library than an actual place someone lived. There was also an astromech droid collecting dust as it charged in the corner. Presumably it was powered down, but it still made Din straighten his back in anticipation. He looked around while sitting on a chair — made from the same bamboo that grew outside — next to the cluttered table.
Considering they fought each other less than a half hour ago, it was pretty disconcerting — at least on Din’s end — how the other man was so comfortable in his presence when he didn’t even know if he was trustworthy or not. Granted, if Din could control minds he’d probably also feel fine being around someone who just tried to kill him.
The blond suddenly turned to him after talking through all his thoughts, which Din admittedly was only half listening to because he was mumbling most of it to himself.
“Ok, how much were you promised for bringing in Grogu?”
“Beskar.”
“Beskar?”
At his raised eyebrow, Din took that as a sign to explain.
“An ore that was stolen from Mandalore. My people’s birthright.”
With a solemn nod of understanding — which Din was not expecting — he walked over to the table and brought out the fobs and pucks from the hunter earlier, adding to the mess. The blond picked a fob up, the one screaming bloody murder, and lightly waved it.
“This one’s mine.” With a slight wrist flick, the fob turned off. “And this,” he picked up a puck from the pile, flipped it, and a holo appeared showing the blond’s face, a bit younger than how he looked now, and–
Holy shit.
Din didn’t think he’d ever seen so many zeros attached to a bounty before. His eyes widened behind his visor and looked back up at the other man. ‘Luke Skywalker,’ the bounty said.
“This is what I’m used to,” the blond — Skywalker — said while rocking Grogu’s pram with his free hand. He looked over to Din, locking eyes through the tinted glass once again. “Though, I usually don’t get two batches in a day. Hunters are typically more spread out than that,” he said with a humorless laugh.
“Your bounty,” Din hesitated, not really sure where to go from there. “It’s Imperial. Imperial doesn’t spend.”
“Not unless you know where to look.” Skywalker put his finger in the hoverpram for Grogu to play with, who started getting a bit fussy. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he glanced back to Din. Then it looked like a wave of realization hit him.
“Wait, do you not know who I am?” At Din’s weak shrug Skywalker’s smile became blinding. “I can pay you in the promised beskar, plus my bounty’s worth if you help me.”
Din’s thoughts halted.
If true, his covert would be set for generations.
“What’s the job?”
“I want you to turn us in.”
Huh?
“Wait a second–”
Skywalker raised his gloved hand and sat down across from him, “Just let me finish. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and now that Grogu specifically is getting targeted, that's a sign to get my ass in gear and do something. I can tell you’re not a fan of the Imperials, right?”
Leather gloves on the table clenched into fists.
“Job’s a job.”
“And I don’t blame you for that, but this is getting out of hand for me. I’m just glad the first hunter the Imps sent for him is someone who isn’t even loyal to their cause.” He smirked before placing a hand on the table and fanning out his fingers. “But back to the matter at hand; after you turn us in and get your reward, I want you to help us break back out. Though you should give it a bit of time so I can investigate enough and hopefully get some answers, disrupt their research…” He petered off at the end, drumming his fingers against the table as he stared towards Grogu, muttering to himself about 'the force' and 'midichlorians'.
By Manda, how did I even get into this situation?
"So," Din cut off Skywalker, who promptly turned to face him, "you’re just hoping that some random bounty hunter, who was hired to take your child," a flash of something went across Skywalker’s face at that, before immediately smoothing his features into an impenetrable mask. One that seemed practiced. He continued, "will just agree to some vague and half-cocked plan where you put yourself and the kid in danger to get, what? Me, a stranger, a reward, and you some info? How do you even know if I’ll come back? I can just take the credits and run; it’s no skin off my back. Or why do you even need backup? I saw you fight. Or couldn’t you just..." Din waved a hand in front of the other man’s face, imitating what he did to the other hunter earlier, "out of there?"
A beat of silence.
“He’s not my child,” was the only thing Skywalker said as he rocked the hoverpram in response to the laundry list of questions asked. It was spoken so quietly that Din wasn’t even sure if he heard correctly.
“What?”
“He is not my child,” Skywalker said a bit louder this time, still rocking the pram. At some point during their discussion, Grogu must have fallen asleep and was now happily gurgling, unaware of what was going on next to him.
Well, certainly not biologically, but I guess he’s not his foundling either?
Skywalker closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before releasing it. He opened his eyes.
“I said before that you feel different, and I mean that. You sitting here and hearing me out of your own accord is proof of that, even if the credit and beskar rewards are a big motivation too. And call it manipulative, but I’m also appealing to the paternal instinct that you hopefully have to do good for this child.” Din flushed at that, but Skywalker went on, “I can’t just up and investigate this by myself. If anything happens to me, Grogu would be…” He refocused himself with another breath and a slight head shake, hair getting a bit rumpled in the process. “I just can’t do this alone. If I’m in an Imperial facility, that might be a bit much even for me. I need some semblance of assurance that I’ll come out of this for Grogu’s sake. And if a hunter practically falls in my lap that’s apparently good enough to hunt a precious quarry for the Imps, who’s to say he couldn’t re-hunt the quarry back?”
Din sat agape under his helmet. “But I didn’t get the quarry. You stopped me. If I can’t get past one man, how am I supposed to help you break out of a whole facility?”
“That ‘one man’ will be on your side this time. And I don’t need you to take down the whole place single-handedly, I just need a bit more of an edge than what I have now.” Skywalker turned to the window, prompting Din to do the same. Throughout the conversation, the light coming into the room had been waning and the sun was just about to set. The blond sighed. “We can talk about this more in the morning. Or, you can get back on your ship and fly away.”
Turning back to Din, his blue eyes shone deadly even in the low light, “But if you choose to leave and give up this location–”
Din rose his hands and cut him off before he could finish, “Believe me, I wouldn’t dream of it.”
After a brief pause, Skywalker nodded and got up. “If you want I can show you the extra room.”
Shaking his head, he also stood and replied, “My ship is fine, I’m not too far off.”
“What about anything to eat? Water?” A different expression fell upon his face. “Oh gods, I didn’t even offer you something to drink. Beru would kill me. What sort of host–” Skywalker crossed over to the kitchen area, grabbed a kettle from the stovetop, and started futzing with the tap. The threatening aura from thirty seconds ago had dissipated completely.
The fuck? He’s worried about… hosting me? A bounty hunter? Who tried to kill him?
“It’s fine–”
“No, I insist–”
Din got up and turned off the tap, gloved hand covering ungloved. “I’m fine.”
Skywalker practically jumped at the contact and looked up at him. Din was almost taken aback by how wide his eyes were. The shorter man blinked and looked around, eyes landing on Grogu.
“Right. I’ll just put some on for myself then.” And with a stiff nod, he turned back around to the stovetop to heat the kettle. With his back still towards Din, he took that as his cue to leave.
“Alright then… Goodnight.”
What the hell was that?