Author's Note: This is my first Mandalorian fic, so please be gentle. I love Star Wars, but I don't know EVERYTHING the way others do. So if I make a mistake, let me know, but please be kind about it! I've tried to stick to themes specific to The Mandalorian, but Luke is in this, and that complicates everything for me. Also, this is a total whumper. Lol.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Disney owns everything.
The Dark Side of the Moon
"Everyone is a moon and has a dark side…."
~~ Mark Twain
Grogu plays with the frogs in the pond in front of his…home. He almost understands this word. This place, this safe place, with many frogs, and lava, and wide open skies. This place with the metal box. This place is supposed to be his home.
His father has seen to this. Father. This word he knows. He knows, understands, and loves this word very well. His father. The Mandalorian. Din Djarin.
And Grogu is now not only Grogu. He is Din Grogu. This is his name now. This is who he is.
Grogu absently uses the Force to twirl a frog in the air as he happily considers these dizzying, amazing thoughts.
He is Din Grogu, and the…box…no, not a box. The house! The house behind him is his home.
His home is quiet now. His father is in the house. His father. His father is in the home. His father is in the home making dinner.
Grogu's stomach growls in anticipation. Dinner. He completely understands this word, as well. To have the two words, "father" and "dinner" in the same thought is astounding. His father is making dinner. How has he become so lucky?
As the sun slowly sinks behind the long horizon, Grogu continues to mull through his thoughts and to juggle the frogs. It's only when the cold night breeze causes him to shiver, and his stomach growls again that he snaps back to reality. The frog falls into the pond, and Grogu coos with careful curiosity. It's late. Where is Father?
He mentally reaches out to the Mandalorian. Sometimes his father can feel him when he does this, especially if Grogu is particularly happy, or sad, or scared. He feels nothing from Din Djarin, which is not too unusual. Grogu is calm. He's content, but neither overwrought nor overjoyed. He reaches again, just to try, and still there is nothing.
Nothing, that is until he pulls back. Just as he retreats from his father's blocked mind, he senses a faint rustling of confusion and pain. From his father? From Din Djarin? Is that what he senses? How could that be?
Grogu shuffles his way to the open front door and carefully peeks inside the house. The first room is dark and quiet. He doesn't smell anything. No dinner. No Father. Very curious.
Grunting slightly, he wanders his way into the food room. Here a light is on, and there are ingredients on the table. Father is still starting dinner, but must have walked away. He is not in the food room. Grogu's stomach growls. Father should be done with dinner, not still starting it.
Now, Grogu is concerned. When they are here in this home, Father is serious about keeping dinner at a set time. He is serious about all of their meals, which makes Grogu feel happy and safe. It has not always been this way for him.
And now, dinner is late. Dinner is not started. Something is wrong.
As Grogu exits the food room, he hears a strange noise. The sound comes from the sleep room. Someone groaning? In pain? In fear?
Grogu uses the Force to quickly maneuver through the long corridor that connects to the sleep room. He feels urgency and growing fear. Something is wrong, and he does not know where Father is.
He peeks into the sleep room, and finds Father there, lying on the floor. But someone else is also there. A woman Grogu does not know stands in front of Father. She shifts, and Grogu sees that Father's helmet is off in front of this stranger. The woman holds something in her hand that seems to dazzle Father's eyes.
So wrong! So wrong, Grogu thinks. His father grunts, and clenches his hand, but he does not move. And his helmet is off. And there is something wrong with his eyes. A machine. The woman holds a machine that dazzles Father's eyes and makes him groan in pain and fear.
Alert, angry, and agitated, Grogu easily uses the Force to push the stranger away from Din Djarin. He smashes her against the wall and holds her there. He is pleased when the machine falls from her hand and stops working its tricks on Father. Din Djarin's body relaxes, and he struggles on the floor. He does not seem to be able to sit up.
Grogu's anger flares, and he pushes the woman harder into the wall. She cries out, and Grogu feels glad.
She should not have seen his father's face. She should not have hurt him.
Grogu holds her in place as he draws close to his father. Din Djarin's struggles to move have ended, and he stares at Grogu with dazed eyes. Grogu is very scared now, because Father does not talk to him. Father looks at him with eyes which do not know him anymore.
He stretches his mind toward his father, and feels bad pain, confusion, and fear. There is nothing there that knows Grogu. There is nothing there that knows how to be a Mandalorian. There is nothing there.
Grogu considers the machine that has been dropped on the floor and tilts his head slightly so he can better see the woman he still holds against the wall with the Force. She smiles broadly and spits at him.
"I know you know," she says, the strength of Grogu's hold on her forces her to gasp the words out. "He's gone. Erased. Flayed. The only suitable punishment for the man who murdered Moff Gideon." She spits again. "A Mandalorian. So inferior. And now gone."
And she is right. Grogu does know. He feels the emptiness where once his father's mind lived. Grogu battles fear and black hatred. He is tempted to ride the wave of dark emotion and struggles against the desire to crush the woman with his rage. So easy. It would be so easy. He could do it with a blink.
She laughs at him. She spits at his father.
Thoughts intrude. His safety is broken. His happiness is lost. His father gone.
Grogu has been returned to the fear and anger of his old self. All returned with this woman's scorn and violence.
He struggles a moment more. The woman smiles widely and laughs again.
So Grogu blinks.
OoO
Far away, Luke Skywalker gasps in his sleep. He awakens and sits up in his simple bed.
A disturbance in the Force woke him. He has lost someone to the Dark Side.