PADAWAN
Din Djarin is not himself and the man is terrified.
A/N: I love the story of Din Djarin and Grogu. I don't need anything else. Also I am writing this because of the force/my inspiration Pedro Pascal and not for monetary gain. I have spoken.
Note: This event happened after Season 2 Episode 16. The chapters might sometimes be long or short depending on the story plot.
Please don't be shy to review and tell me what you think. Thank you!
Photo link: wiki/D5-Mantis_Patrol_Craft
CHAPTER 11
HOW TO TRAIN A MAND'ALOR
Part 5
JEDI SQUARED
Chapter 10:
"Someone is arriving." They paused long enough until they could slip through the gap of the slowly opening gate.
"Who?"
They both looked up as a starship descended outside the wall.
-o-o-
The vessel, twice the size and width of the DX-9 banked and landed quite a distance on the western wall right over the burned forest.
"Dank Farrik…" Din breathed.
"What's wrong?"
"Other than that ship giving me immense nostalgia and envy, that's a bounty hunter ship."
"Ah," Ahsoka nodded "your old ship?"
"Moff Gideon destroyed it."
"Not to be insensitive about your loss, but I think you got a good upgrade." The Mandalorian just shrugged his shoulders.
Din tapped an instrument on one side of his helmet, "I see many heat signatures on that ship."
"That ship was here when Lang came." They both turned at Gov. Wing's voice. The governor stares at the ship with a pinched face. "Not again." the elder tightly clutch at his robe.
"It would be better if you head back inside, governor. Have your guards prepare for battle. Just in case." Din dispensed with the formal nod and the governor hastily followed the direction of the Mandalorian. "Shut the gate."
"Here we go." Ahsoka muttered as the back of the ship begin to open. She looked up at Din and they walk to meet whoever is in that vessel.
-o-o-
Ahsoka studied the man who walked down the ramp. The guy squinted looking around as if something does not agree with him. "What do you want?"
"Hi there!" The man raised a hand in greeting. "I'm Sumal. Nice to meet you." The slim man smiled and hitched his pants higher. "Long time friend of Lang. Where is he?" the mercenary looked around.
"He's gone." Ahsoka jerked her head towards the sky.
"Gone as in alive?" Sumal sniffed then changed the toothpick in his mouth to the left side. "Or gone as in dead?"
"He is not here." Ahsoka shrugged her shoulder in response.
"Little lady," the mercenary drawled "I love those impressive shoulders of yours there. But your answer's not very specific…"
Din could feel Ahsoka's hackles rise at the insult and the flattery. 'Calm down.' He sent his thought.
"I'd like to know where I can find him." The blaster changed positions as well. "Tell me where he went?"
"I heard he was going to Atanu." Ahsoka almost want to throw up at the way the man was almost salivating at her.
"Hmm. Atanu, eh?" The man nodded. "That bastard." And he starts chuckling. "That bastard." He said again, shaking his head. "Wanna come with us there?" Sumal even winked at Ahsoka.
"No, thanks. I'm fine here."
"That's too bad. You're gonna miss on an adventure."
"Maybe next time." She nodded with a tight smile.
"Oh!" The merc looked at Din Djarin as if seeing him the first time. "I get it." Sumal gave a thumbs up. "Well, call me when you're tired of him."
Din: Let me shoot him.
Ahsoka could hear Din's leather glove flexing. Not yet, Din. She sent though their psychic connection. To Sumal, "You best be on your way to follow him there, right?"
"Yah, I guess so," Sumal spit on the ground. "I better hunt down that rat." He drawled.
"Good voyage." Ahsoka nodded to the man.
Din: 'He's not convinced.'
Ahsoka: 'Now you're getting better at this. Say, do you have mind alter abilities that we don't know yet? That'll be very useful right now.'
Din assumed that it means influencing someone by planting suggestions in their head. 'You don't?'
'I wish.' Ahsoka could almost release the breath she's been holding as the man turned around and began to whistle a tune. He gave them a jaunty wave and a smile.
Ahsoka turned to Din and nodded. Slowly they step back towards the gate.
"But…I just remembered," Sumal turned around again. Din and Ahsoka stopped, wary. "…Lang recorded a holo. " he spit again. "Wanna know what's in the holo?" Sumal asked with a crooked smile.
Why do people keep asking that stupid question? Din wanted to sigh then shoot the man.
"Enlighten us." Ahsoka lifted a brow.
"It was very interesting. You see, Lang and I had that agreement. We record all of our fights and then if one of us dies the other one would hunt down our killer."
Ahsoka gave Din a psychic nudge as the man's aura darkened. 'Det baka…'
Din could feel it too. 'Haar'chak!'
"It's supposed to be sent to me when…he…dies."
The wind blew at the three people as if nailed to where they stand.
The blaster traced a train of fire but Sumal's quarries were gone. Sumal screamed in frustration. "Get those assholes!" Sumal yelled as his men came running down from the ramp and both sides of the transport ship.
The Rising Phoenix flew Din and he caught two men coming out of the side of the transport ship. The mercenaries screamed in fear as Din flew high. "Thanks for the blasters." He released the clamp of their weapons around them and the two ended as double fuffs of dust on the Calodan soil.
Happily weaponized, the Mandalorian went on a shooting spree; taking out the men emerging from the ship.
'Where's Sumal?'
Ahsoka was a blur as she tackled the men trying to get a shot at her, keeping her at bay from Sumal. 'Inside the ship.'
On the wall, Governor Wing's men began shooting as well but they were neither well trained nor equipped for this kind of defense.
As he took down some more mercs Din collected the weapons where he flew to the gate. The Mandalorian gave it to the surprised people on the wall. "Just point and pull the trigger." He made a mental note to give some basic training to these people or they'll be subjugated again or worse.
As he was flying back Din spotted one bad guy from the other side of Sumal's ship so he went to the opposite side. As he flew through the open door he thought he heard Sumal yell at him, but he couldn't be sure. From behind he grabbed the surprised shooter, took him up in the air and threw him down to his buddies hiding behind the low rocks. But not before confiscating the man's weapons. Of course.
Ahsoka was not far behind and the Jedi took down Sumal's men; those deadly sabers crisscrossing and slashing furiously.
Din was quickly doing a mental inventory of how many men could that transport carry when he heard something above him.
He felt the heat of that cannon blast as it missed him by inches. Then the ship sped past him and began to shoot at the people inside the wall.
Ahsoka ran to the wall, jumped with both sabers held high but the pilot of the small ship saw her and banked sharply away from the Jedi.
Din could hear her growl of frustration as she landed back on the wall.
"Ahsoka!" Din held his hand out. Seeing his plan, in one swift move turned off one saber, hooked it and grabbed Din's proffered arm as he flew by. He let her down on top of the ship. "Don't damage it much!" he said in parting as he went back to take care of the other ship he noticed coming down from the clouds. 'But give them hell.' Din chuckled.
-o-o-
Ahsoka had an evil-ish smile on her face as the landed inside the vessel. The smile widened as she beheld the surprised faces of the passengers; the assault team. "This is your last stop, guys."
The Togruta did not allow them to gather their senses as in one swift move she slashed her way from the back to front of the ship. The pilot got distracted at the screaming and yelling at the back of his aircraft that the ship went nose down. Lights began flashing red and alarms started shrieking.
As the ship tilted Ahsoka leapt and planted both her feet on either side of the open pilot's door. "Intruder!" The co-pilot pulled out a blaster and began shooting at the Jedi but he must have the skills of a storm trooper.
"Stop firing, you idiot!" The pilot yelled as he struggled to bring his ship in control.
"I'll have that! Thank you!" Ahsoka force pulled the weapon out of the stunned co-pilot's hand. "Oh, yes. I just did that. Cool, right?" Her smile and the glow of both sabers were the last things the men saw as she jumped inside and stabbed them.
The whine of the engines was deafening as the ship began listing left and right now that no one's in control. Ahsoka pushed the pilot out of the door and grabbed the control stick; it is now moving lower towards the east wall. She winced when the left wing scraped the fortification. 'I'm trying not to damage it much, Din.' She gritted as the stick tries to go the other way, fighting her. Ahsoka found herself cursing in Togruti as she wrestles for control. She passed by the DX-9 and for a moment she thought she would crash on it.
"Okay, not my best landing…" she sighed even though she heard something tore from the landing gear. Ahsoka had just jumped out of the side door when she heard the crash.
-o-o-
Din picked on mercenaries that the guards on the wall couldn't see. He flew high to avoid blaster shots and swept down fast shooting with the weapon he stole from the mercenaries themselves.
He looked up as another small cruiser came shrieking down at him. He flew up and he could hear the cruiser after him. Dank Farrik! He slung the weapon and instead unclipped the dark saber.
Din made a curving fly by to meet the cruiser as the dark saber flared at his bidding. If Moff Gideon was able to cut through the wall of his light cruiser with this then this wouldn't be hard.
He waited for the ship to charge at him mid-air, the dark saber glowing. He soared up and then down at the back rudder and slashed. The saber cut it like slicing a soft fruit. He looked at the dark saber with satisfaction. "Now we're talking."
But his attention was caught at the out of control cruiser.
Din cursed as the ship looked like it's heading for the wall. He has no weapon he could use to blast that thing to smithereens. "Where's my blaster when I needed it?" Din missed his Amban phase-pulse blaster. With it he'd have shot the ship to steer it in another direction.
As he was fast thinking of his other options Din suddenly felt as if something is prodding him to reach out at the out of control aircraft. Unbelievably he felt the same feeling when he 'pulled' the spear towards him.
It was the same power, the same Force.
Why the hell not? Din imagined his hand wrapping around the ship as he pulls it away from the wall.
But now the Force is stronger and his left arm shake from the effort. Is it working? Da'ha dir! He was relieved that the ship was not hurtling towards the wall anymore.
As if he was using his grappling hook, he rose up as he Force pulls the ship away from the east wall dragging it behind him towards the ruined forest. He remembered there was a deep crevasse when he arrived on Corvus. When he arrived at the chosen location he 'opened' his hand and he watched with a smug smile as the ship fell away from him.
Din turned and was flying back to the city when he felt an immense weakness took over him.
-o-o-
Ahsoka turned around as she also felt the Force. She honed in on him. 'Din…'
The Jedi could only stare as Din's rocket sputtered and the man began to fall. Ahsoka forgot what's happening around her and ran as fast as the Force would let her. No, she's too far!
The Togruta slowed and stopped running as she thought she was seeing things. "May the Force help us…"
-o-o-
Still mid-air and weakening by the minute, he became more concerned when he heard the jetpack begin to sputter.
The Rising Phoenix or the jetpack fuel had almost been used up from flying for an extended period during the fight. He was way too far up and his strength is getting depleted by the minute.
Controlling the jetpack's remaining fuel on his vambrace, he went for a controlled free fall by turning the jets on and off. Things were going well then a hail of blaster fire came at him. Din looked down at the furious Sumal looking up at him full of hate.
The mercenary prepared for another salvo at him. Din took a deep breath; he has to avoid being hit by blaster fire and if things go bad he might have to summon the Force again.
When he almost lost his life in Nevarro and they were holed in the cantina with his head bleeding from a concussion, one of Gideon's troopers blasted them with a flamethrower and if Grogu did not deflect the flame they'd have been burned to ashes.
Din surmised it must also be the same principle with weapons and ammunitions. He had tried the Force Pull for the aircraft how about Force Push? What the hell. He has no other options at this point: either get blasted out of the air or fall and get his brain splatted on the Calodan soil?
He could see the guards from the wall beckoning him over to the safety of the fort but he couldn't leave Ahsoka alone to deal with Sumal's remaining men.
He just needs to use the Force enough to at least gain a little bit of control to land on firm ground.
And as if right on cue, the jet pack began its 'death throes'… another blast came at him…Dank Farrik!
-o-o-
"NO!" Ahsoka snarled as she saw who shot a hail of blaster fire. She changed course as she saw Sumal begin shooting at Din.
"Die! You Mandalorian scumbag!" The mercenary took another magazine of blasters from his bandolier and did not see the Togruta as he was so focused on emptying his ammunition to the killer of his friend.
"Hey!" the man turned sharply and gaped at the Jedi rushing at him like a Nexu. "Lang says 'hi'.
Ahsoka took deep breaths as Sumal stared at her in shock. Disbelievingly he looked down at the saber sticking deep in his chest. "Yehsa tohg'ha." She said in Togruti as she pulled the saber out of the man's chest. The mercenary fell at her feet.
-o-o-
Slowly…slowly…
Din's brow was knotted in extreme concentration as he manipulated the Force to descend safely. But each minute that pass felt that he was still too high in the air. If he lets go at this height he'd break each and every bone in his body. The unyielding Beskar armor would add to the injury. But even in this dire situation he will never ever remove any of his armor even if it kills him.
He's getting dizzy and he could feel cold sweat rolling down from his scalp to his forehead to his neck. I'm near…just a little bit more….
-o-o-
By the time Din Djarin fell to terra firma he was almost unconscious.
"Master!" Yuno rushed to Din upon seeing him land. The boy has been anxiously tracking his descent fearing that he would fall to his death. "Hey! Help me pull him out of here!" the boy called his friends.
Three teens came to help drag the warrior back in safety. "What the…he's so heavy!" the four boys grunted in the effort.
"I don't care! Pull!" Yuno screamed. "We're nearly there! Here! Over here!" They only let go when they were out of direct line of fire behind some rocks.
"Din!" Ahsoka landed almost next to them. She moved the fabric away from his neck and checked for a pulse. "Can you hear me?" The Jedi felt relieved when the helmet nodded weakly. "Take care of him!" Ahsoka told Yuno and she took off to finish the last mercenaries.
-o-o-
Ahsoka could not watch and wait for Din Djarin to come down as there are still a few mercenaries taking potshots at the Mandalorian even after if she had killed their leader.
She stormed inside the Mantis where Sumal's men are preparing for lift off. That is, if they could make it fly. It sounds like they were in chaos as the ones left don't seem to know how to fly this piece of machine.
One thing is for sure, they still are going to fight to the death. "So," the mercenaries turned as one at her voice. "leaving without saying goodbye?"
-o-o-0-o-o-