Guns for Hire
The Gauntlet headed for a lushes planet, entered the atmosphere but kept a distance. Huge dome cities were spaced throughout the landscape, but that wasn't what was in Bo's scope. Several dots appeared when Bo spoke a loud.
"There they are."
Din illuminated a screen seeing a massive collection of ships in the distance, "That's quite a fleet."
"It took me a long time to assemble it," Bo said proudly, "Most of it was captured from the Empire."
"Don't forget about that Freighter we helped you 'commandeer'," Osa air quoted.
"Oh yes," Bo reminisced on when she first met them.
"Those ships could come in handy taking back Mandalore," Din suggested.
"Axe Woves is their leader now. It's going to take some convincing to get them to join us," Bo said.
"I wonder what they're here for?" Din questioned.
"This planet isn't on the New Republic Registry, so I guess it's an independent world that hired them for protection."
"Can't imagine Woves will be happy to see you," Din pointed out.
"From your expression that would be a no. See Papi I know because I can see her face," Osa teased.
"I'll land outside the fleet's perimeter. It's probably best if we go on foot," when suddenly obnoxious music played over the Gauntlet's comm and then a female voice spoke.
"Welcome to Plazir-15. The Outer Rim's only remaining direct democracy. You've been assigned a docking ship. You will be guided on the assigned path. Engaging automated guidance."
The Gauntlet made a mid air jerk and turned course. Bo began flipping switches but realized her actions were doing nothing, "They've taken control of the ship," Bo informed.
"Can they do that? Is this legal? Should we report them?" Osa rattled off.
"To whom?" Bo replied.
"Your fleet," Osa's voice went up an octave, knowing by Bo's pressed lips and raised eyebrows, that would be another no, "I guess we're going for a ride."
The Gauntlet landed when everyone disembarked and was only welcomed by two droids, "This is interesting, "Din gave a look around calculating all hypothetical issues.
"Welcome to Plazir-15," the Imperial protocol droid began, "Please proceed to your hyperloop pod."
"Why do they have Imperial droids on an independent world?" Din whispered not wanting to alarm his children who followed behind him and Bo.
"It's the Outer Rim. Your guess is as good as mine," Bo said.
Everyone loaded and took a seat in the pod when Bo spoke instructions, "Bring us to the bay closest to the Mandalorian fleet."
The same female voice that came over their comms spoke in the pod, "As per Article Nine of the Couruscant Accords, permission must be granted from High Senate for access to self defense forces in the peace keeping zone. Do you grant permission to scan your chain code?"
Bo illuminated a series of text written in Aurebesh from her gauntlet, followed by Din and then Osa. The pod scanned the text and announced their names aloud.
"Bo-Katan Kryze. Din and Osa Djarin. Your presence has been requested by the leadership of the planetary democracy."
"I'm afraid we have more pressing matters. Perhaps at a later time," Bo interrupted.
"Please do not attempt to leave the vehicle. This is not a request," when the pod shot off like a bullet making its way through a series of tubes.
"I've never been here before. Have you?" Bo asked the two.
"Never heard of it. Do you think we're gonna have to blast our way out of here?" Din was already forming a plan.
"I like your thinking Papi," Osa with drew her weapon pointing it at the roof when Bo leaned over, clutched Osa's blaster in order to prevent her from shooting.
"Let's see how this plays out," Bo said gesturing for Osa to put her weapon away.
The pod arrived at a white building, the doors opened to a very pristine atmosphere with classical music playing overhead. Bo, Din, Osa, and Yazel proceeded forward when another pair of doors opened to a hall filled with greenery and a banquet table in the center filled with lively chatter from the array of species. At the head of the table a robust man stood eager to greet his new guests.
"Join us! Come! It's a party," He then spoke to the ones at the table, "Everyone, special guests, Mandalorians," he then went back to talking to Bo and Din, "I hope you like secretions. Take a little sip-sip. Come sit."
Bo and Din glanced at one another with speculation but proceeded towards the head of the table and took a seat.
"Let's address the bantha in the room," he began again, "I am Captain Bombardier and this is my wife Duchess, I was once a facilities planning officer during the war. And thanks to the New Republic Amnesty Program, I was able to help rebuild Plazir-15."
"You were Imperial?" Din started to question.
"He was," the Duchess who sat next to her husband said, "Plazir-15 suffered greatly under Imperial rule. My husband came here as part of his rehabilitation. He oversaw the rebuilding of my planet on which he served as nobility since it was originally settled, and we fell in love," she giggled like a schoolgirl.
"Yes we fell in love," he repeated with the same endearment.
Yazel cooed sensing the couple's affection for one another, but this caught the Duchess attention, "Could I perhaps hold the baby?"
"I know my brother looks like a baby, but he's not and he doesn't do well with strangers. He's very introverted," Osa explained when the Duchess dangled food in her fingers triggering Yazel to force jump into her arms.
"I guess there's nothing more powerful than food. I stand corrected," Osa said in disbelief but yet jealous Yazel was feasting on delicious treats when she couldn't.
"You see, it was time for our planet to move into a new age," the Duchess said, "We held direct democratic elections for the first time in our history."
"We are both royals and elected leaders," Bombardier chimed in.
"And the Mandalorian privateer warships docked in your fields?" Din blatantly stated.
"We hire them for protection. Our charter forbids us from having a military because of my husband's Imperial past," the Duchess revealed.
"But because of this, all of our resources go to growth and the people," Bombardier seemed genuine.
"How noble," Osa whispered under her breath because anyone who was associated with the Empire left a bad taste in her mouth.
"I'd like to speak to these 'privateers,'" Bo finally entered the conversation.
"That can be arranged. There's just one condition," Bombardier said.
"What."
"You really must see the view. Right this way," he rose from the table escorting Bo, Din, Osa, and Yazel who was still in his wife's arms, away from the guests.
"We have a problem," the Duchess informed.
"A droid problem," he got specific.
"What kind of a droid problem," Din didn't like where this was going.
"Malfunction," the Duchess revealed but Bombardier corrected her.
"I personally oversaw the program. I can assure you the Imperial droids were completely rehabilitated for peaceful purposes. Exclusively," he claimed.
"What kind of malfunction?" Din wanted to get to the point.
"Nothing too serious at first. Unexpected power cycles, deleted task stacks," Bombardier rambled off.
"Then it got worse," the Duchess stressed, "Traffic accidents, heavy equipment failures leading to injury. Assault."
"Assault?" Din stressed again.
"Respectfully what does this have to do with us?" Bo asked.
"Our constables are ill-equipped to confront battle droids," the Duchess whispered.
"Battle droids!" Osa squealed.
"Uh-uh, former battle droids. They've been rehabilitated for civic duty," Bombardier clarified.
"We thought," sighed the Duchess.
"The Mandalorian garrison outside your city walls can make quick work of your battle droids," Bo pointed out.
"That's just it," the Duchess said, "Our charter forbids any standing army from entering our city. Our constables aren't even allowed to carry blasters."
"But you allowed us to be armed," Din stated.
"Exactly, the people have voted that we are a pluralistic society. You are Mandalorians. Weaponry and armor are intrinsic to your culture, are they not?" Bombardier questioned.
"They most definitely are," Osa twirled her blaster in her hand.
"You see where we're going here?" Bombardier raised his eyebrows insinuating a proposition.
"You want us to eliminate your droid problem," Bo got down to brass tacks.
"Exactly. I knew you would help us," the Duchess said with relief.
"Hold on, your Majesty. We didn't agree to help you," Bo interjected.
"Please, Princess Kryze. Your Grace. This is not intended to be a work of charity," Bombardier declared.
"Unlike my brethren outside your city walls, I am not a mercenary," Bo reminded.
"Apologies if that is the impression I gave. What I intended to convey is that I would hope that this 'excursion' would be viewed as an act of diplomacy between our two planets. In fact, Plazir-15 would formally recognize Mandalore as a sovereign system and petition the New Republic to recognize it as such," Bombardier proposed.
"The mercenary captain, Axe Woves, indicated that he split from you because you had designs on ruling Mandalore once again," the Duchess said.
"Those plans have been abandoned," Bo said with disappointment as Osa looked over at her.
"The offer stands nonetheless," Bombardier said.
"What do you think?" Bo turned to Din but Osa stepped forward.
"Are you kidding. You think Papi is going to give up this opportunity. You had him at battle droids."
Din, Osa, and Bo were directed to a viewing facility where an older gentleman, named Commissioner Helgait, was at the center of the controls explaining how they kept an eye on the droids in the city.
"These droids were all reprogrammed to serve the community from the stockpile of captured Imperial robotics scheduled to be scrapped at Karthon. The droids reprogramming was a complete success, until one day an isolated event."
He pulled up the video on one of the monitors showing a garbage droid throwing trash instead of dumping it.
"Then others," he pulled up another where a battle droid carrying a woman's purchases short circuited and began tearing the boxes and clothing apart. He showed a series of other incidents while explaining.
"This is just a small collection of malfunctions that our security cameras caught," when the screen showed a droid whirling knives at the screaming citizens in a restaurant.
"Turn them off," Bo immediately said when she heard the fear of the people.
"What?" Helgait said.
"Why not turn them all off? Who's in charge of that?"
"I am."
"And this is why there's a retirement age," Osa said.
"We have a failsafe cutoff switch built into the system. However," the Commissioner trailed off.
"What?" Din entered the conversation.
"The citizens voted against any interruption in droid services. They can't live without them," he ended in a laugh.
"And why's that?" Din asked baffled.
"The citizens are no longer required to work and spend their days engaging in recreation, the arts, and participating in our direct democracy."
"Did you say the arts?" Osa's interest peaked.
"If we shut down the droids, our citizens wouldn't know how to survive. Our society would collapse."
"Then what do you want with us?" Bo asked.
"To seek out and decommission any remaining rogue droids until we can fix the problem."
"On it," Osa pulled out her blaster ready to take action when Din took his hand and lowered his daughter's weapon.
"Give us the list," Bo said to Helagit while smirking at Osa.
"Well for that you'll have to go to the lower level and speak to the Ugnaughts."
"Ugnaughts," Din repeated.
"Aww Kuill," Osa said saddened.
The three took an elevator down to the lower level when Din stated the obvious, "See what happens when you rely on droids?"
"Oh no Papi is reverting backwards. What happened to all your progress?" Osa joked.
"Is he taking this personally?" Bo questioned.
"Just pointing it out," Din said.
"Let's just finish this so we can be on our way," Bo seemed annoyed.
The elevator stopped and opened to a room filled with work stations. At each one an Ugnaught was working on a dissembled droid when Bo introduced herself and asked for the one in charge. No one acknowledged them and continued their work.
"We were sent on behalf of the Duchess and Captain Bombardier to help you with your droid problem. Hello," Bo said hoping for a response.
"Tough crowd," Osa said.
"This is going no where," Bo stated.
"We are Mandalorian Din and Osa Djarin, friends of Ugnaught Kuill," immediately from hearing the name, all the Ugnaughts heads rose, "You will answer our questions and help us with our task. I have spoken." Every Ugnaught stopped their work when everyone took a seat, "Thank you for your hospitality and for sharing your table with us. We were engaged to hunt down and eliminated the malfunctioning droids," Din informed.
"There are no such droids," the Ugnaught at the head of the table spoke in certainty.
"You may not have heard the news down here, but your droids are wreaking havoc in the world above," Bo stated.
"There is not much of which we are not aware," the Ugnaught began, "These halls are the central nervous system of the city. I assure you the droids are not malfunctioning."
"You know denial is the first stage to acceptance," Osa pointed out.
"Citizens have been harmed by these malfunctioning machines," Bo tried to make clear.
"This is not the case. I have spoken," the Ugnaught replied.
"We're not in any way suggesting that your work is to blame," Din said.
"I was," Osa raised her hand, but Din corrected.
"What my daughter lacks in knowledge is the stories of Ugnaughts skill with smithing droids are legendary. We know that Ugnaughts are considered the hardest working species in the galaxy. We, like you, have been engaged with a task to perform. We will investigate the dangerous incidents. We would appreciate your help."
The Ugnaughts discussed among themselves when they handed Din a holo pad, "Here are the locations of the droids you seek."
"Thank you. We are in your debt. I have spoken," Din concluded.
The three boarded a pod transport taking them to their next clue. Bo seemed a bit bothered and questioned Din, "What was that?"
"We've spent time with Ugnaughts. There's a particular way to communicate with them. Accusing their work of malfunctioning is an insult," Din glanced over to Osa.
"Why am I getting the helmet stare," Osa turned to Bo and went into a story, "You see, I use to 'forget' to activate the Razorcrest's security system. Long story short Jawas infiltrated the ship and took it apart. I was to blame, but when we got the parts back I was unconscious the entire time Papi and Kuill put the Crest back together. So technically," she turned to her father, "Shame on you for not informing me."
Din just shook his head wanting to forget that fiasco when he moved on. He looked over the holo pad paraphrasing the data, "Now, they've indicated that there's a likelihood the next event will be at the loading docks."
"How sure are they?" Bo questioned.
"Hard to tell. Ugnaughts always seem sure of themselves."
"Well it's the only lead we've got so we might as well have a look around," Bo said when the pod stopped and they exited.
On the loading dock several super battle droids marched in a synchronized line, fulfilling their programming. The three made their way down as Bo lead briefly reminiscing, "I haven't seen battle droids since the Clone Wars."
"I have," Din kept brief.
"Any of them feel suspicious?" Bo asked Osa when she was going to answer but Din interrupted.
"They all are suspicious."
Straight ahead a battle droid foreman commanded them to halt, "This is a restricted area. You are to vacate immediately."
"We have a few questions," Bo stated.
"Show me your identification please."
"We're here on behalf of the Duchess to investigate the droid malfunctions."
"Yes I saw the reports. Rest assured, I've had the entire line of loaders undergo maintenance protocols as a safety measure. The certification is on file."
"Getting anything?" Din asked Osa as they stood in front of the moving line of droids.
"It's hard to sense programming, it's like they need stimulation," Osa suggested when Din began kicking random super battle droids.
"Uh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," the foreman stated.
"Why's that," as Din continued kicking random droid loaders walking past.
"As a precaution. Their base function was warfare," the battle droid reminded.
"I thought they were just checked out," Din brought up when he started kicking each one, "Then this shouldn't faze them," but the next one Din kicked something triggered as the super battle droid wacked Din into Osa.
The droid took off dodging Bo's blasts when the three ran after the rogue. It didn't take long before the droid wound up in a crowded street filled with innocent civilians.
Din, Bo, and Osa knew they had to be careful so no one would get hurt. They continued their chase on foot when the droid threw a metal case but Osa caught it mid-air with the Force, lowering it with ease.
The chase continued through the city when the droid threw an electrical pole but Osa caught it again, but struggling this time since it was extremely heavy.
"How many more things is this droid going to throw at us?" Osa shouted as the three then stampeded through the crowd, "You know this would end much sooner if you two would just use your jetpacks to catch up to it," Osa sarcastically suggested.
"You know this chase would end much sooner if my daughter just used her abilities to immobilize it," Din exclaimed back.
"Always pointing out the obvious, don't you Papi."
"Keep going," Din instructed as he maneuvered down a separate corridor, through another building and then crashed through a window to tackle the rogue droid. It got up ready to run again but was frozen in place by Osa using the Force. Din and Bo fired shots immediately disabling it as it fell to the ground. Instantaneously constable droids floated to the scene declaring for everyone to stay back, but Bo and Din began to investigate.
Bo crouched down, overlooking the hardware, noticing something, "I found a spark pad."
"What's it say?" Din questioned.
"The Resistor."
"Sounds kinky," Osa chimed in.
"Or it's a droid bar," Din corrected.
"There's an address," Bo smirked when the three made way.
"Let me do the talking in there," Bo instructed as they headed in the bars location.
"Why is that?" Din asked with a hint of annoyance.
"Because I wanna get the information fast and get to the fleet."
"So do I. What's your point?"
"You kicking droids is really not helpful."
"That ones on me. Papi was just trying to stimulate the droids since I couldn't sense anything," Osa informed, "Technically he did find the malfunctioning one."
"You two did it your way, now let me do it mine, okay?" Bo hoped.
"You're the Queen," Osa saluted.
"We're here," Bo said with pressed lips.
The three entered witnessing all sorts of droid in taking a dark substances, clinking the viles while dancing to the beat. Bo, Din, and Osa stood in the entrance when the music and chatter abruptly stopped as all eyes were on them.
"Awkward," Osa said while everyone remained silent.
"I don't think they get many of our kind here," Din said.
Bo took lead as they approached the bartender.
"Can I help you?"
"That depends. Is this The Resistor?" Bo asked.
"This is."
Din threw the spark pad on the countertop, "That was found on a rogue battle droid."
"We give out lots of spark pads. What are you getting at?"
"Sassy this one is," Osa leaned on the bar.
"There has been a string of malfunctions all pointing to this oil can," Bo ended with an insult.
"You can check my registry. We are in full compliance with Planetary Hierarchical."
Din ignited an electrical shocker and pointed it at the bartender, "If you don't start answering questions, I'll yank your memory circuit and dissect it back at the lab."
Osa leaned in so the bartender could hear, "I've seen him do it multiple times."
Some of the droids got the courage to leave but Din turned commanding everyone to stay put.
"A word," Bo said to Din.
"Watch him," Din told Osa as he and Bo turned their backs to the droid.
"What are you doing?" Bo whispered.
"You're wasting your time. You can't reason with droids," Din reminded.
"Their behavior is programmed. All they do is reason."
"They're also programmed not to harm organics. How's that going?"
"Look, you are not helping. Just because the malfunctioning droids happen to visit here doesn't mean that this one is in on it."
"I want to help," the bartender chimed in.
"You weren't given permission to speak," Osa said.
"You want me to pull your hearing sensors too?' Din threatened.
"We are worried that if these horrible incidents continue, we will be,"
"You'll be what?" Osa questioned.
"There are concerns among my customers that we will be replaced."
"By what?" Bo asked perplexed.
"Humans. Most of us have been refurbished and reprogrammed. Some droids on Plazir date back to the Separatists. The New Republic would send them to scrap. But here on Plazir, they are given a second chance."
"Well these catastrophes don't help your argument," Osa said sincere.
"That's why we need your help. We don't want to be replaced. We still have a lot to contribute. Human life is so short. They don't ask that much of us. Organics created us. It's the least we can do."
Suddenly the entire bar boomed with buzzing, beeping, and whooping from the droids agreeing with the bartender.
The bartender led the three into its office when Bo asked a question, "Do you have a record of what each of the suspects ordered?"
"That is not how it works here. There is no selection of beverages as with organics. Here, droids are served Nepenthé."
The three looked at each other when Din asked what the substance was.
"It is a viscous lubricant that protects against mechanical wear while delivering program refreshing sub-particles."
"So Nepenthé reprograms the droids that drink here?" Osa questioned.
"It patches the programming as the commands of the mainframe change," the bartender opened a box, pulled out and scanned a chip, "It seems the malfunctioning droids all imbibed from the same batch."
"Shocker," Osa delivered sarcastic as all three glanced at one another.
Bo, Din, and Osa went to a room that resembled a morgue, but instead for droids. The lab tech lead them to the second to last row, opened the small compartment and pulled out the super battle droid. It laid on a flat table still intact.
"These are the remains of the latest malfunctioning droid," the tech confirmed when a medical probe droid inserted a syringe into the hardware and drained a small amount of fluid. The tech took it to her lab station and began running tests.
"We're looking for programming sub-particles," Bo narrowed it down.
"Yes. Let me isolate them," the tech pressed some buttons, "Let's see if they give us a reading."
The device gave some charts indicating the particles were present.
"What are the chances that they're still active?" Din asked when suddenly the medical droid went ballistic, igniting its laser cutters, slicing through anything in its path.
Everyone took cover, not wanting to get sliced in two, as Bo and Din began blasting, but they couldn't get a good shot.
As Bo and Din continued their strategy, Osa army crawled her way closer, she rolled behind a console when she summoned the Darksaber with the Force. The saber released from her father's belt, soared through the air and into Osa's hands. Once ignited Osa sliced through the medical droid with ease as the parts laid by her feet in fire.
Everyone gained their composure and breath while staring at Osa when she replied, "No testing needed, they're still active Papi."
The lab tech quickly went to her station to show the results anyways, "These are the sub-particles," but when she zoomed up even closer she noticed something peculiar, "Wait, they're actually nano-droids."
"How did nano-droids get into Nepenthé?" Bo asked.
The tech zoomed in even more.
"What's that?" Osa pointed out.
"The striations? Just an aberration in the metal. Probably malleability limitations at this scale," the tech clarified.
"No, it's writing," Bo confirmed.
"Rotate the perspective," Din instructed.
"It's a chain code," the tech reveled.
"If it has a chain code, then we should be able to determine its point of origin," Bo said.
"In theory. Let me see what I can find out. Here we go. They were originally manufactured by the Techno Union. Been in cold storage for ages. The chain title says it didn't arrive on Plazir through Droid Acquisions. Strange," the tech seemed baffled.
"How did it arrive?" Osa was curious.
"They were requisitioned by the security office."
"Is that unusual?" Bo asked.
"It's illegal. There's no record of this transaction on the government registry. These droids were ordered by an individual."
"Is there a name?" Din hoped.
"Our head of security, Commissioner Helgait," the tech said in shock.
"I told you this planet needed a retirement age," Osa whispered as the three headed back to the control room.
The Commissioner sat at his desk giving out orders to his fellow watchers, when the three entered.
"Commissioner, we have some questions for you," Bo stated but Helgait just brushed her off, focusing on the monitors.
"We know about the Nepenthé. And the nano-droids," Din said.
"They didn't malfunction. You programmed them to disrupt and attack," Bo confirmed.
"You sent us on a wild goose chase for nothing," Osa said a bit exhausted.
"You're coming with us," Din demanded but then Helgait rose from his seat while illuminating a large red button.
"Everyone freeze," he exclaimed, "If I trigger this failsafe, it will convert the planet's docile workforce back into battle droids and unleash them upon the unsuspecting citizens of Plazir. Don't make me do it," Helgait threatened.
"There's no way out Commissioner, give up," Bo tried to negotiate.
"I didn't give up to the corrupt Republic, I didn't give up to the Empire, and I won't to you."
"You're a Separatist?" Bo said through clenched teeth.
"Separatist is a pejorative term. I support democracy. Count Dooku was a visionary. He was cut short in his prime by the Jedi enforcer," when Osa had enough and Force pushed him through the air, knocking him into a wall and unconscious.
"Oops, I over shot the chair," she put a hand up to her helmet, shocked by her own strength with the Force.
Bo, Din, and Osa escorted Commissioner Helgait into Bombardier and the Duchess facility, when the two stopped playing their game shocked on why Helgait was in cuffs.
"We found the cause of your 'malfunctions,'" Din stated.
"Is this true?" the Duchess said in disbelief.
"I'm afraid it is, M'lady," Helgait said.
"Despicable," Bombardier spat.
The three began disputing between one another while the Duchess defended her husband's honor. Helgait hoped for forgiveness from his Duchess, but she decided to exile him on a distant moon. He bowed in defeat as the constable droids took him away.
The Duchess sighed in sadness when she turned her attention to Bo, Din, and Osa, "And as for you, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze, Din and Osa Djarin of Concordia. I grant you audience with our deployment of Mandalorian privateers. I also give you three our highest honor, the key to Plazir," the Duchess handed Bo a unique key and continued, "You will always be welcomed in our domed paradise."
The three bowed and thanked the Duchess when she summoned a sword bestowing knighthood on Yazel. Din picked up Yazel as all four headed out, but Osa turned to her brother reassuring their status.
"Just because you're considered a knight doesn't mean you out rank me, right Papi?" Osa asked for clarification but Din stayed silent, "Right, Papi!"
Everyone entered the pod as it finally approached where the Mandalorians made base. Osa could sense the torment struggling within Bo and tried to reassure her.
"You're their leader. They're going to follow you."
"I'm not their leader anymore. Axe Woves is."
"Then what's your play?" Din asked.
"I'll know when I get there," Bo said hesitant.
The Mandalorian privateers were camped out on an open field, sitting in the sunlight waiting for their next mission when they spotted four individuals approaching. Knowing all to well who they were Axe Woves stayed seated while shouting towards Bo.
"Have you come back to join the mercenaries?"
"I've come to reclaim my fleet," Bo stressed.
"It's no longer your fleet, is it? I'm now in command and grown quite fond of it," Axe said like Bo wasn't even a threat.
"Then I challenge you, one warrior to another. Do you accept?"
"I do," when Axe sent off a grenade from his gauntlet, but Bo dodged it by igniting her jetpack and soared into the air.
Not wasting an opportunity, she flew directly at Axe kicking him to the ground. He got to his feet while releasing a knife and stormed at Bo. The two began a hand to hand combat, one knocking down the other until Bo got the upper hand getting Axe in a choke hold.
"Do you yield?" she exclaimed for all to hear, but Axe ignited his jetpack sending them to the skies.
Once again the two battled, knocking each other senseless, when Bo got Axe on the ground, her knife on his throat asking if he yielded.
"You'll never be the true leader of our people," Axe spat, "You won't even take the Darksaber from him," Axe nodded towards Din, "He's the one you should be challenging."
"Enough Mandalorian blood has been spilled by our own hands," Bo released Axe and addressed the others, "Mandalorians are stronger together."
"But a misguided zealot possess the blade. One, I might add, who has not one drop of Mandalorian blood in his veins," Axe said with distain.
"Who are you calling misguided!" Osa became furious with Axe's words towards her father when she stepped forward, hand extended, Force willing the Darksaber into her hand and igniting it.
The entire Mandalorian feet stared in shock, wondering if they were in the presence of Tarre Vizla's heir.
"My father is nothing more than a loving, caring, man who has dedicated his entire life to this stupid Creed," she began pointing the tip of the saber at different Mandalorians, "The only ones I see who are misguided are you, constantly pointing fingers at one another, always trying to overthrow each other and see who's better. What makes my father or I any less of a Mandalorian?" Osa said as her voice cracked, retracting the blade, when Bo stepped in.
"Din and Osa Djarin took the Creed and chose to walk the Way, just as our ancestors did. They are every bit the Mandalorian that they were. Certainly as much as any of us."
"But according to our ways, the ruler of Mandalore must posses the Darksaber. And from what I see our history has come full circle with a Jedi possessing the saber," Axe said while putting a hand to his chest, almost pledging his allegiance to Osa as the fleet followed.
"Hold on a second, this was just dumb luck. Papi was unconscious when that killer robot thing on Mandalore took him. The saber told me what to do, I just listened," Osa said by accident as the fleet conversed among themselves, "Wait that came out weird, the saber's not mine."
"Technically it is kiddo," Bo reveled, "Your dad lost to the creature and you won when you defeated it," Bo reminded.
"Correction, you defeated the creature, remember I tossed you the saber while Yazel and I held it down with the Force. I clearly remember you stabbing it in the eye," Osa stated, "Here, the saber's yours."
"My fleet will not trust in a story and the saber is not a gift to be given, no matter how well intended. They would have to see me win it."
Osa leaned in so the others couldn't hear, "Well then, let's give them a show." Osa walked forward, standing in front of the fleet, "Looks like they want a ruler who doesn't bow down to defeat easily."
"Osa, enough of this," Din tried to reprimand his daughter but she wasn't having it.
"No Papi, because these people deserve to be ruled by a leader who doesn't give up on others or themselves," Osa ignited the Darksaber again, staring at the blade, "So are you ready to ignite it?" Osa called back to her statement when Din and Osa first tried to get Bo to come with them to Mandalore, but she refused.
"I've never stopped burning," Bo got real determined, extending a blade ready to battle.
She made the first move, believing Osa would be an easy defeat, but she evolved over time, taking her father's and Luke's training to heart. The two collided blades, Darksaber vs. Beskar, youngling vs. warrior, Jedi vs. Mandalorian.
Osa didn't hold back, something came over her, as if she indeed had to prove something, to see if she was more than what she gave herself credit. But Bo knew everything was on the line, her status as leader, her title as Mandalorian, but mostly her self-worth to herself.
Their battle continued, neither one giving in, slashing at one another, but hoping one would yield.
"You're better than I remembered," Bo said.
"And I'm not even using my abilities," Osa pointed out proud of her combat skills.
"I wasn't giving a compliment."
"You should be because not many can defeat me."
"Really, then you losing to your opponent back at the Covert training wasn't on purpose?" And that's when Bo remembered what Din told her about Osa always leaving her right side exposed.
Bo couldn't help herself and smile, she knew Osa was giving her all but not in the way Bo thought. Osa was giving her all in order for Bo to become her best, so she took the opportunity, dodged Osa's blow while elbowing her exposed right side, and honorably disarming Osa.
With the wind being knocked out of her, Osa fell to the ground, saber less, but not feeling defeated. She glanced up as Bo was bathed in a Heavenly light, she stood tall exuding her authority, extending the Darksaber high above her head declaring her the rightful ruler of Mandalore.