The way she was cradling Pirpak to her chest as she was reading to him from her data pad made her feel a lot more content than she had been for a while. Tarre's helm was secured among Mando's weapon cache, and the visions had thankfully stopped for now. She was safe for now, Mando was teaching her what she had always wanted to learn, and she was getting to care for a child as more than a babysitter. The child was squirming and seemed bored by the story right now, his claws trying to go to the pictures portion of the data pad. She smiled and helped him, letting him swipe through the pictures. He seemed very excited by the pictures of helmets, recognizing them as Dad's face, saying as much as he tapped the pad and chanted Sayr. She let him play, helping him practice words when he pointed and looked up at her expectantly. He kept scrolling further and further back, and she let him do as he pleased, knowing he couldn't delete her data without her password.
"Can I come up?" She stood up and went to the ladder.
"Coming down actually." He was bringing his trash from his ration bar dinner, Andora stepping aside for him.
"Okay, I promise not to touch anything up there. Just want to do some star gazing." He nodded as she went up, coming to see what his son was doing since the kid had been chanting for him. Sitting on the floor on the fabric she used as a playmat for him he looked, seeing the armors the kid was scrolling through, the kid looking up excitedly as he pointed to the pictures and then to Din. It was cute, the kid was not quite understanding that not all helmets were him. The kid kept scrolling further, and eventually he was pointing at a picture of an armored man and a woman. "Anra!" The kid said excitedly. It was the name he gave Andora and she didn't seem to mind.
Din looked at the picture and recognized that it wasn't her, the woman had blonde hair but the same green eyes. Even with all of Andora's coloring he could see as her roots grew out she was a brunette. The woman was wearing a wedding dress as the man in the picture next to her wore a very battle scarred set of painted beskar armor, the helm off and held between the couple. The man had a darker warm skin tone, brown hair, and brown eyes. The next couple of pictures were of the pair and a baby, the baby almost like a copy of his father as he grew up in the images. Suddenly it was just the father and son, the woman was missing and Andora not showing up until toddler pictures with her father. Her brother seemed to have taken pictures with her as a baby but as Pirpak scrolled through without grasping Din pieced it together. In one picture on a camping trip her brother was wearing his father's armor and she as a child was clinging to him excitedly as his father gripped his shoulder, a proud smile on his face. The next picture was Andora as a teen with her father at what looked like a musical performance, the remaining pictures just the pair of them. He wished he had a picture of his own parents, something to look and confirm their faces were the same as he remembered. Pirpak went to the videos recorded, bored of the still images now, tapping on them without any real interest, just wanting the stimulation. Din took the pad from the kid, closing it down before the kid invaded her privacy even more.
Pirpak was pouting at being denied the data pad, but he reluctantly moved on as Din pulled the silver knob out for him, and Din was watching as the kid was rolling it before giggling excitedly as he levitated it on his own. Looks like Andora had been training the kid when not working on her own training. As long as it was controlled, it shouldn't be a problem. The kid had seemed to grow a half inch taller, but since his robes were so long it didn't change much.
They landed on the jungle planet a small distance away from the space port, the sounds of civilization and the sounds of wildlife intermingling as he pulled out a scarf for her, and she wrapped it around her head to help hide her face and hair. She was tasked with carrying Pirpak as he brought his weapons, having her strap the blade, a small pistol along with the flute along her thighs and hip. This place was a bit rough so he wanted her and the kid protected. He let her go ahead, knowing it would help her blend in more if he was the tail instead of the lead. They were looking for a Jedi that had been highlighted on the list. Jedi Master Cere Junda, last known to be flying with the Mantis crew. Checking he had found that the ship had last been through the space port, and had not left yet. Andora was looking at the shops of the trading post, and he stayed way back, watching the crowd for retreats or threats.
While looking with his skills she was tentatively reaching out with the force, the kid feeling her do it and eager to mimic her he lashed out his own senses and people seemed to feel it even though they didn't know what it was. She pulled her energy back quickly and tried to distract him with a toy from the vendor in front of her, and his eyes widened in amazement at the shiny toy with little bells jingling on the multiple appendages. He reached out with his chubby claws, wanting to grasp it. Andora did not even try to haggle the price as she paid the vendor and gave the kid his new toy. The kid was gripping it firmly, his little claws digging into the fabric and so excited he was shaking which in turn made the toy jingle. The toy was the same size as himself, and he pulled it into his bag, the flap covering his head as he got to the important work of playing with his new friend. She could hear the kid babbling to the toy, the bells jingling as he shook and moved. Oh Mando was going to be annoyed with the bells. She tentatively reached out her senses again, the toy keeping the kid distracted now and under control.
From the corner of her eye Andora caught the flash of movement as Mando stepped into the crowd and started moving towards a side path into a seedy alleyway. He must have caught sight of his prey. A second figure moved after him, and she followed as well, ready to draw her blaster as she moved Pirpak towards her back, not wanting to risk him getting hurt. Din had someone pinned to the wall, the red haired man was looking into Mando's vizor with fear, the figure behind Mando pulling out a blaster. He easily rolled his rifle off his shoulder and into his hand to point at the second assailant, and it was incredibly impressive. Andora took the blaster from the second person, who was putting their hands up. There was a swirl of energy from both of the people Andora recognized.
"Mando, val kapr cuyir Jetii, Ni liser aalar etid kebbur at pirimmur asuba." (Mando, they might be Jedi, I can feel them trying to use the force.) Mando nodded to her and tossed the red haired man from the wall towards his companion who grunted as they caught him. He kept his rifle on them, glad to see Andora was also ready should the pair move.
"Jedi Cere Junda." Mando's modulated voice was deep and terrifying as he glared down at the two through his visor. The cloaked figure pulled down her hood, and Mando nodded to Andora. This was their target "We need to talk." His tone left no question of if.
"Most jedi hunters don't wait this long.". The set in Junda's eyes showed no fear.
"Lucky for you I'm not hunting." His rifle never waiver from the target's head.
"Training an inquisitor?" She sneered at him, shooting Andora a dirty look.
"A yalilyr ibac kyrayc adate ti asuba." (A hunter that killed people with the force.) Andora offered to him as clarification while they keep their eyes on the target. "Draw back your powers, we just want to talk."
"You lashed out in the market." Junda accused Andora as her hand moved towards something at her hip.
"A disintegration blast is faster than your magic. Keep your hands empty and we keep talking." Mando didn't know what she was hiding under the folds of her cloak, but his trigger finger was ready. Junda reassessed the weapon, her hands returning to where he could see them.
"What do you think is worth talking about?" Junda was still glaring at them, the red haired man not able to do more than stand there between the set of blasters. Mando took a deep breath.
"The life of another. Are you able to be trusted with that kind of information?" He saw something in her face drop, a tell of regret. She couldn't keep a secret. The exposure risk was too high here. "Ibic cuyir a kyrayc kyr. La cuyir va ruusaanyc." (This is a dead end. She's not trustworthy.) He kept his rifle on the pair as Andora started to back up and reenter the market square to head back to the ship. Pirpak popped up out of the bag, hearing Dad's voice made him excited to show off his new toy, but the stuffed creature was too heavy and fell out of the bag. He started crying and reaching for the toy. Andora stopping to pick it up but Pirpak was already levitating it towards himself. She quickly put the toy back in the bag, Mando moving to join her as she walked faster from the market.
Junda sat there in disbelief. That baby had looked like...it couldn't be. The pair were already rushing from here, and Cere stood and gave chase. Cal was coming after her, but she was focused on the baby. The baby had been the one to let out that massive burst of power. It was a chance for the Jedi to start over. To think it would be a Mandalorian rushing the child away to what he thought was safe. She could be good, she would show the child the light side of the force, she could repress her darkness if it meant the Jedi would continue.
"Wait! I can help!" The woman and the child were already out of sight, the armored man the one waiting for her at the edge of the jungle. His rifle was down, but she didn't miss his hand on his blaster, her own hands raised up to show she was not trying to threaten him. "That child...it looks like...please let me help." Cal was quickly behind her, the younger man had his hands up as well, but his body was tense. It was hard for the pair of Jedi to read the Mandalorian through his beskar. "I can train him, he's too powerful to not be trained."
"Who does the child look like?" The modulated voice answered back firmly.
"Grand Master Yoda and Master Yaddle." Cere hoped he would reconsider, that he would let her near the child. He nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. Had he already known?
"The registry says Yoda died when the Empire rose. Where can I find Yaddle?" The man had a copy of the registry. Guess being a bounty hunter meant he knew how to find what he wanted.
"I don't...no one knows, she vanished before the clone wars started." Cere wished she had a better answer but it was the truth, the Jedi Master had just left when the council had started to discuss going to war for the republic.
"I can't find the child on the registry. Is there a more complete list?" He wasn't giving her anything more.
"Not here, the only place it might have been...would have been Coruscant. The Empire was hunting the children on those lists. But please...I can take the child. I am Jedi, I can show him." The armored man turned again and somehow he disappeared into the jungle in all his shiny armor. The pure dismissal, not even a rejection of her offer hurt. He saw something in her that he judged as not good enough for the child.
"Are we going after them?" Cal asked from behind her.
"No, He's going to find someone else." Cere gripped her fists together. "Perhaps it's better though. If we survived the purge, maybe they will find a Jedi better suited to raising that child."
"But why would a Mandalorian care about protecting one of ours?"
Andora was waiting for him on the ship, Pirpak playing with his new toy on the blanket. Mando simply passed her by to get to the cockpit and take off. One name off the list. She waited till she felt the bump of the ship leaving the atmosphere before knocking to come to the cockpit with him. The jingling was thankfully not as bad as she feared. The pair sat in silence, her looking up to the stars as he scrolled through the list for another target.
"Can you use your magic to find better targets on the list?" He turned to look at her through the visor, letting himself take in her appearance. Her hands slowly took the scrap scarf fabric from her head, and he still enjoyed the cascade of her hair.
"I can try. Not sure how well it will work." He kept staring at her, curious about how she would actually use the power. She moved to kneel and close her eyes, taking deep breaths as she let herself try and slip into a trance, but his eyes honed in on her made her aware of her breathing, of the tingle on her skin, and the nice feel of his presence. "Can you tell me some of the names? I don't really know what to focus on." She asked softly, and he turned to the list.
"Yaddle." Din felt this was the best fit, she was a Jedi of the same species. She could care for the child in both physical needs and when it came to the magic inside him. She might even be able to reunite the child with his birth family in their homeworld. Andora was silent, and he let her focus on the task, not sure how the magic worked, but he trusted her to do her best.
Pirpak could feel Andora meditating and he climbed up to join the adults, his new toy floating along behind him as he came to rest against her knees, cuddling his toy as he felt want she was doing with her power. Andora did not seem to mind, her left hand moving to let the kid wrap his chubby fingers around her thumb. He was trying to mimic her again like at the market, his power wrapping around her weaker one and trying to understand what she was doing. She gently squeezed his hand, trying to direct him to follow instead of lead the force, her calling out into the force for Yaddle. His energy tried to match, but he wasn't really able to grasp what it meant to call out to the force.
In the darkness found behind her eyes as she meditated she felt her perception of the world dim more and more, only really aware of herself as a light, the child's light glowing much stronger than her own. Stretching herself out she felt Din's light, it was a different shade to her own, and she expanded further, the small glimmer from Tarre's helm was like a shadow compared to the light of the living. She kept pushing farther than the ship, feeling weaker and weaker as she pushed her mind further than she had tried before. The child seemed to feel her light spreading too far, his own light trying to support her but she only pushed further than him.
"Rancisis look for you must." Came an echo from another light that seemed to be further out but yet closer, a light flickering between here and not here. Andora kept reaching out, pushing herself past the pain. If she was hearing this voice maybe if she pushed she could reach her family. Suddenly the light pushed Andora back into her body. Mando was holding her as the kid was tapping her leg, both making a lot of noise she was struggling to process. Her mouth was full of a metallic taste and she coughed it up, her body seeming to remember that it needed to breath. She was feeling cold and disoriented, Mando gripping her face and turning her to look up at him. Andora could see through his helmet, her sight not quite back into her body fully yet. He looked worried and angry. Did she do something wrong? As her vision slowly returned to her body instead of her power the image of his face faded into the reflection of her face in his beskar where blood was flecked on it. Blood? Whose blood was that? Was the ship under attack?
She tried to stand but it was like her body just gave out under her, Mando catching her against himself. He was using the fabric she had been using as a scarf to pinch her nose and help her lean her head down, and she coughed up into the scarf. Her vision was focusing and she realized that she was the one coughing up blood. She must have been having a nose bleed and had been struggling to breath as it filled her mouth. Mando and the kid were still talking but she really wasn't understanding it. It was strange, Andora tried to use the force to stop herself from bleeding but it seemed she had exhausted it to a point she had actually caused damage to herself. She felt the bacta shot Mando gave her, the healing serum helped compensate for her body's lack of natural energy. The bleeding stopped but she was still limp as she felt him hold her. She took the bloodied scarf from him and tried to clean herself up.
"What happened?" Her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears.
"The kid came out of it before you did, started trying to wake you up. Then you started bleeding." Mando sounded so angry. "You wouldn't wake up." She was aware that he was holding her tightly, and she hated herself a little for liking being held like this when he was obviously upset.
"Rancisis. That's what it said, we need to look for Rancisis." If she didn't say it now she might forget.
"You pushed yourself to the point of suffocating on your own blood." He was still angry with her. "I said try. Why would you push yourself like this?" He pushed her up against the wall to support her weight as he evaluated her. She smiled sheepishly at him, shivering a bit at the cold metal of the ship and her own low body heat.
"Tal'onidir." (Sweat blood) She said softly, smiling up as she felt the bacta take effect, her exhaustion catching up with her. "Ni shi copaanir at cuyir a jate verd." (I just want to be a good soldier.) The bleeding had stopped and slowly her skin was returning to a healthy tone. She didn't trust that she could get down into her cot to rest without jostling too much and starting the bleeding again or worse falling. He must have seen the way she was glancing at the ladder, his gloved hand turning her to look back at him, his visor close to her as he held her face gently in place.
"Cad olyay a katkagr acyk a verd bal eo ti a jaro." (There is a difference between a soldier and someone with a death wish.) He was firm in his tone, and it made her feel so...exposed. Did she have a death wish? She looked down in shame, he was probably right. She just...he had wanted her to do something for the mission. She didn't want to disappoint him, but she had been willing to die for a chance at hearing her family again. "Kurya'yr malyasa'yr va gotal'ur gar buir giarioa be gar." (Dying won't make your father proud of you.) His tone was softer now, and his gloved thumb wiped her stray tears away. "Gar narir va ne'waadas at juha kak mayen, gar cuyir Mando, ti ra ures kaysh ca'a." (You don't need to call yourself anything, you are Mandalorian, with or without his blessing.) How he seemed to pierce into the heart of what she was feeling, of what she had been doing, she didn't know, but she let herself take solace in his words. "Gar shuk meh kyrayc." (You're no use dead.) He shifted the tone and moved to help her down to her cot. He went down the ladder first, his hands on her hips as he helped her slide down the hatch. The kid was babbling in his half formed words, and Mando reached up and easily plucked the kiddo and his toy from the high perch, the kid settled on his shoulder as he helped Andora pull the cot open. She didn't bother doing more than striping off her boots before slipping under the covers.
The kid looked pretty tired too from an exciting and power filled day, not protesting as Mando put him in the padded bed to sleep. His toy clutched tightly to his chest and Mando laid the blanket over him before tethering it to the side of the ship so it wouldn't move. He sighed heavily, needing to clean her blood off before it oxidized and started to make pits in the metal. With both of them asleep he could finally have some space to himself. He turned off the lights since he could still see with his helmet's sensors. He easily pulled the supplies out, the pair so exhausted he could probably fire a couple blaster rounds and they wouldn't do more than roll over. He cleaned his gauntlets, his chest plate, gloves and thigh pieces of blood, satisfied with their care he put the pieces on the rack to rest as he decided that while in orbit he should catch some sleep himself. He cleaned his other pieces just to be thorough about them before striping off layers of armor fabric and moving to his own sleeping compartment. He stretched out of the armor, feeling the tension in his bones and muscles from wearing it for days straight. Once inside the compartment he removed the helm, cleaning it carefully before laying himself down to rest. His hand came up to his face, feeling the stubble of his growing beard, and adding a shave to the list of tasks to complete in the morning. He had told her she was a Mandalorian even though everything about her was so different from himself.
Or at least on the surface it looked to be. But she was a hard worker, she was devoted to her ideals, and she did her best to follow resol'nare. If the droids hadn't attacked, he might have grown up like her, on a world without armor, where the idea of battle was feared, where he would have been forced to obey the Empire, and watch day by day part of what made them Mandalorians was chipped away by the galactic tides of change and politics. To ease his mind he pulled out his supercommando codex, reading from it to help calm the swirling thoughts of what ifs and focus on what was.
Chapter end