This serves as The Armorer's perspective of chapter 1
As mentioned in the notes of previous chapters My head-cannon is that she is Rook Kast
CODA 3 - The Armorer
It had been many years since she had shed her name, distanced herself from her own past, her own identity. All to take on another, to become an armorer, forging the identity of her people, shaping them in accordance of the ways of old.
Preparing them for what was to come. She had always thought perhaps not in her lifetime, but she would prepare them all the same.
She was not the same person she had once been, many of the connections she had forged severed long ago. But she was a leader and though her flock had scattered like ash in the wind, she still had to lead, to have answers when none were clear.
She tracked the politics of the galaxy through hacked comms and old bugs. All remnants from her youthful days
And one day a frequency she had never expected to spring to life suddenly caught her eye.
The words brief but the implications were massive.
– Moff Gideon has been captured by the New Republic, - A new Mandalore has risen-
Mandalore. The man she served a lifetime ago. She remembers, will always remember.
It had been many years since she had thought about the possibility of another. It was a role she never thought she would see rightfully claimed again in her lifetime.
From the limited details in the brief transmission she was able to gain a fair deal of insight. The connection was rather simple to piece together, there was only one man she knew who would be involved with this, and so she would do what was necessary.
'A meeting is in order'
Her message encoded, kept short and to the point, not letting on anything that would indicate just how much she had known. He would fill her in on the details. Until then she would wait.
She tracked his movements in silence as he entered the room - observing all.
The item at his hip confirmed everything and amplified her unspoken reservations.
He carried himself not in the way of a strong leader worthy of wielding the darksaber, but instead this was a man whose very being was seeped with regret and shame.
From the way his shoulders hung to how he held his helm - leaning forward as if being pulled downwards.
The man before her was but a child, broken in need of discipline and instruction and she found herself disappointed.
"I should return all this."
She scanned his movements, his unease, his hesitation as he awkwardly pointed to his beskar.
"You should use it for the rebuilding, the beskar can forge many for the foundlings."
There was a story behind these words, but she would not ask, If he had any respect for her, he would elaborate. And so she let his shame hang heavy with the prolonged silence.
"I removed it in front of another…" And with that he began to tell her what had transpired on Gideon's cruiser, how he had fulfilled his quest and had by his own hand broken the creed.
"I broke the creed; I have no right wearing this." Correct was the first word that came to mind.
Repressing a sigh she would tilt her helm slightly as she brought the tips of her gloved fingers together. She could not keep those kinds of thoughts, not anymore.
"Perhaps" Whether she agreed with his statement or not was irrelevant.
"I am dar'manda"
Had the darksaber not been found, had the former foundling before her not won it in combat, had she not had a half a lifetime of thoughts and a days of reflection since the initial message to fall back on…
Had he come to her before all this as himself, not as Mandalore…, and told her..
She would have rejected him on the spot, stripped him of his armor and his identity, let him become dar'manda.
Casting brethren out was not something taken lightly, and she never took joy in doing so, but rules had to be kept for order to be upheld, there could be no exceptions. At least that had been the way.
"You might have once been considered as such, but no longer." A new Mandalore, a new era - things could change. Things would have to change.
"I do not understand … Explain?"
"Do you not?" She found his confusion pathetic.
"I let others see my true self, I AM dar'manda!" Again he was like a child struggling to speak "I no longer have a right, this is the…"
He had a once in a lifetime chance to stay. And yet his ignorance blinded him. Enough was enough! She raised her hand to silence him.
"What do we follow? What is our Creed?"
She waited in silence until the spoke. This was something he would need to understand for himself.
"The Way of Mandalore."
And you are our new Mandalore.
Kast slowly let her helm rise and fall before she stood. Regardless of what she thought of his actions, she knew there was no point arguing or questioning.
"And by right of combat it does appear we once again have a new Mandalore."
"No" his voice rose with each spoken word, "I am dar'manda! I cannot."
In part she knew it was not his fault for his lack of knowledge, he had been raised a sheltered life.
In part Kast herself was to blame, after the glassing of Mandalore, she never expected another Mandalore to rise in her lifetime, and so it was never discussed publicly.
His insistence on calling himself dar'manda should have been expected, he had grown in up such fear of letting others see his true self, having seen others cast out in his lifetime.
So much of how things had been done for protection, to preserve heritage as it was. To create a future for her people, one that did not care who you were, or who you once had been. She would try and explain to him the events that led to this lifestyle to help him understand that the rules he grew up with had a reason at the time. But perhaps that reason no longer was applicable to the new future.
"Our last true Mandalore believed we were better if we were as one. In the past our people had become deluded, forgot what it meant to be Mandalorian, took their birth for granted, rejected those born different to them."
Her culture had been so watered down that so many had become hypocrites refusing to allow others in because of xenophobic beliefs. Even among the Death Watch there were some who an outsider rightfully claiming the darksaber in combat was not enough.
No outsider will ever Rule Mandalore – the words Kryze once said about Maul.
Those beliefs were an insult to tradition, and it was a turning point in her views. It was this point she had understood just how important it was to become unified and in order to do that there had to be sacrifices.
Her life with Death Watch following his rule had been filled with hardship and at times remorse. Yes -she had regrets, but at the end of the day her past had shaped her. Led her to her the present to this very moment between them.
And like it or not she owed Maul everything, had he not claimed the darksaber she would never had realised just how important the Mandalorian identity was.
"Our people and our culture were at risk, and so in the name of our true Mandalore we, our Tribe swore a vow to protect it.
He reminded us that being born on Mandalore did not make a Mandalorian. To be
Mandalorian is to live it: to fulfil Resol'nare."
Loyalty to Maul did not start the way of life she and the former foundling before her had lived.
No long before Maul came into the picture there had been a small sect forming within Death watch. A group who not only believed that the resol'nare was not being fulfilled by the Mandalorian government (a fact rightly argued) but these people went a step further to argue that not even Death watch was doing an adequate job addressing things. Instead these people wanted the implantation of a stricter interpretation of the ways of old.
She told him how they had adapted, how they changed their ways to honor their Mandalore. To honor Maul, though she of course kept that name to herself.
The words while in part truthful were not her own main reason for this lifestyle. Instead the words held a double meaning, Rook Kast was wanted for crimes on Mandalore, and aligning with the Children of the Watch, and shedding her former identity let her become anew. It freed her.
By casting out those who followed Kryze, she casted out those who would see her crimes, those who would have wanted her to stand trial.
But in the end, it would make no difference. The planet [Mandalore] had been glassed, blasted so badly that the deserts hardened, that no life would continue, Mandalore had died, and just like that her crimes against the Mandalorian government had been cleared, (in a roundabout way)...
These may have been her reasons for adopting the Way, but they were not everyone's reasons.
Some had no other reason than it was all they had known. But it did not matter.
The reasons for following the Way were less important, following the rules was all that mattered.
Death watch had changed as well broken apart bit by bit until all that remained were those loyal, those who allowed themselves to be shaped.
Was it a coincidence that she had been able to bring so many into the fold, to start her own covert from the many former watch members? People could be so easily shaped and she knew they would follow Mandalore, and anyway no one questioned 'the way'.
"That does not change anything, I let others see my true self, I can never rightfully ..' …She watched as he motioned to his armour, his buy'ce "This Is the way."
"No" What had happened was out of her hands now, The blade at his side was all that mattered. He was Mandalore and Mandalore could not be dar'manda.
"That was the way" she took another step forward placing a gloved hand on his shoulder.
Throughout history her people had changed to adapt, some changes devastating, but she had to trust that as Mandalore he would do right by their people.
"The question is Mandalore , will it remain so?"
No matter the cost, or the changes he would bring, once again Rook Kast would follow her Mandalore.