Chapter 9

-Clan of Three-

"He knew all of you, but he didn't say my name," Aula noted. "We could use that to our advantage."

"How?"

"I don't know, I could go out there and start shooting at them."

"You'd be dead before you barely stepped out the door," said Cara.

"I don't know, just a suggestion."

"I know who he is," Lore spoke. "It's Moff Gideon."

"No," cried Cara. "Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes."

"It's him, he knew my name."

"So? What does that prove?" asked Karga.

"I haven't heard that name spoken since I was a child."

"On Mandalore?"

"I was not born on Mandalore."

"But you're a Mandalorian." Karga was clearly confused.

"Mandalorian isn't a race," Lore explained. "It's a Creed."

He went on to explain how droids had attacked his home world, killed his parents, but how Mandalorians had come in and saved him, taking him in as one of their own.

"That's why you hate droids so much," Aula realized.

"I was a foundling. They raised me in the Fighting Corps. I was treated as one of their own. When I came of age I was sworn to the Creed. The only record of my family name was in the registers of Mandalore. Moff Gideon was an ISB Officer during the purge. That's how I know it's him."

"That's how he knew who we all are," said Cara.

"He says he needs us, which means the child escaped safely. I was worried when Kuiil didn't respond."

"Try him again."

"Are you drinking spotchka at a time like this?" Aula asked Karga.

"This could be our last," he justified.

"Kuiil? Come in."

"Kuiil has been terminated," came the voice of IG-11 over the channel.

"Oh no!" cried Aula.

"What did you do?" Lore hissed.

"I am fulfilling my base function: to nurse and protect."

"Look!" Cara cried. Something was turning the troopers' attention away from them, and that something turned out to be IG-11 riding a speeder bike, shooting down Troopers as he went - Leo in a pouch on his chest.

"Cover me!" cried Lore.

Cara jumped up onto the counter, firing her rifle as he and Karga dashed outside to assist the droid, Lore turning the E-Web gun on the Troopers.

"Lore! Face the gun this way then drop and cover!" shouted Aula.

He did so and she sent an arrow right for it. The arrow struck the gun and exploded - taking out a whole bunch of Troopers.

But their victory was short lived - Lore had been caught in an explosion set off by Gideon.

"Stay with me, Buddy, we're going to get you out of here," Cara assured him as she dragged him back into the cantina.

"If you go anywhere near this child, I will have no choice but to kill you," IG told them.

"We understand, can you remove this grate?" Karga asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Oh I love IG units!"

"I'm not going to make it, go," Lore told them, his voice strangled.

"Shut up, you'll be fine," Cara insisted.

"Leave me."

"I'm gonna have to take this thing off." She reached for his helmet but he stopped her.

"No, leave me. Make sure the child is safe. Here-" With a shaking hand he ripped off the pendant around his neck. "When you reach the Mandalorian covert, show them this. Tell them it's from Din Djarin, and that the foundling was in my protection, and they'll help you."

"We can make it!"

But they were running out of time - Gideon was now trying to have them burned out.

"Hey IG, how's that grate coming?" called Aula.

"Almost there."

"You protect the child. I can hold them back long enough for you to escape."

"You are in no state for that," Aula protested.

"Let me have a warrior's death."

"Or you can let us help you and you can live another day. We won't leave you."

"This is the Way."

The Trooper with the flame blaster had taken down the door and was now stepping into the cantina, ready to blast them. Leo stepped forward.

"LEO!"

Aula pounced, moving to throw herself over him to protect him, but he was blocking the flames, protecting them.

Not only that, but with a flick of his tiny wrist, he sent the blast of flame flying back at the Trooper.

"It's open, let's go!" Karga yelled as IG kicked in the grate. "We have to move now!"

"Go, go," Lore insisted.

"Escape and protect this child. I will stay with the Mandalorian," said IG.

"Go."

"No, I'm not leaving you - you were there to help save my life when I needed it, and I'll be here to do the same for you if I can." Aula looked at the others. "Go, we'll catch up - all of us."

Reluctantly, they left, taking Leo and entering the sewers.

"Do it," said Lore.

"Do what?"

"Just get it over with. I'd rather you kill me than some Imp."

"He's not going to kill you."

"She is right. I told you, I am no longer a hunter. I am a nurse droid. I was reprogrammed. I need to remove your helmet if I am to save you-"

But Lore raised his blaster. "Try it and I'll kill you. It is forbidden. No living being has seen me without my helmet since I swore the Creed."

"I am not a living being."

"And I swear on my life I won't look." Aula pulled up her hood and bowed her head low, squeezing her eyes shut as well.

She heard a click and a hiss but kept her head down and her eyes shut tight.

"This is a bacta spray," IG said. "It will heal you in a matter of hours. You have suffered damage to your central processing unit."

"You mean my brain?" There was Lore's voice, only more clear and less muffled. The sound of it both shocked and excited her.

"That was a joke. It was meant to put you at ease," explained the droid. "It is done, you may open your eyes now."

"Don't shoot! It's us!" Aula hollered down the tunnel as they moved to escape with the others.


The Mandalorians were gone. All that remained was a pile of armour.

"Does that mean they're gone?" Aula dared to ask. "Like, gone gone?"

"We should go," Cara said softly.

"You go, back to the ship. I can't leave it this way. Did you know about this?" Lore asked Karga. "Is this the work of the bounty hunters?"

"No!"

"Did you do this? DID YOU?!"

"It was not his fault," a woman's voice said. They turned to see another Mandalorian.

"Armorer."

"We revealed ourselves. We knew what would happen if we left the covert."

"Did any survive?"

"I hope so. Some may have escaped off-world."

"Come with us."

"No. I will not leave until I have salvaged what remains." They followed her back to her armory. "Show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction - this is the one who you hunted then saved?"

"Yes, the one who saved me as well."

"It looks helpless."

"Oh he's not helpless," said Aula.

"He can move things with his mind," Lore explained.

"I know of such things. Songs tell of an order of sorcerers called Jedi that fought with such powers."

"The Jedi? I thought they were just warriors, but sorcerers too?" cried Aula. "Awesome!"

"It is a foundling. By Creed, it is in your care, and until it is of age or reunited with its own kind, you are as its father. You have no choice: you must reunite it with its own kind. Where, you must determine. This is the Way. You have earned your Signet." She came over and pressed the symbol into his shoulder plate, "You are a Clan of Three. You, the child, and the freedom fighter."

Aula pointed to herself as though to say 'Me?'.

"Thank you. I will wear this with honour."

"I have one more gift for your journey: have you trained in the Rising Phoenix?"

"Oh, that sounds cool," the redhead exclaimed.

"When I was a boy, yes."

"Then this will make you complete."

"Hey, pickaxes. May I have one of these?" Aula asked.

"Take two," offered the Armorer.

"Thanks. This is what we used in the mines - and I have a mean swing."

"Be safe on your journey."


"Stormtroopers, they're flanking the mouth of the tunnel," Lore announced. "It looks like an entire platoon."

"They will not be satisfied with anything less than the child," said IG. "This is unacceptable. I will eliminate the enemy and you will escape."

"You don't have that kind of firepower, pal."

"I still have the security protocols from my manufacturer. If my designs are compromised, I must self-destruct. I cannot be captured, I must be destroyed. Sadly, there is no scenario where the child is saved in which I survive."

"Listen, you're not going anywhere. We need you-"

"Please tell me the child will be safe in your care."

"He will be," Aula assured him. She nodded to the symbol on Lore's armour. "We're a Clan of Three."

"There is no need to be sad. I have never been alive."

"I'm not sad," Lore told him.

"Yes you are. I'm a nurse droid, I analyzed your voice."

IG's sacrifice took care of the Troopers, but their leader was still out there.

"These blasters are nothing against that ship!"

"Come on baby, do the magic hand thing!" cried Karga, holding up three fingers. But Leo only waved back.

"You're right. Blasters won't help us now." Lore attached his new jetpack to his back and shot up into the air, shooting the wire from his gauntlet and attaching to Gideon's ship, taking it down with a grenade.

"Impressive, Mando," said Karga when Lore landed and rejoined them.

"I'll say! You've gotta teach me how to fly that!" cried Aula.

"Take care of this little one." Cara stroked Leo's ear.

"Or maybe, he'll take care of you," said Karga.

Back at the ship, they buried Kuiil and his blurrg.

"He was a good friend," said Aula.

"He was. Hey, what have you got there?" Leo was sucking on Lore's pendant. "I didn't think I'd see this again. Why don't you hang on to that." He handed it back to Leo who promptly stuck it back in his mouth.

"So, Din Djarin?" she said.

"Yes."

She smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you. So, where to?"

Love the glimpse we got of Din ;) So sad about Taika the droid though, he was awesome.

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)