Aldor stayed with him for another half a klick, both of them somber and silent. Even their thoughts were quiet while the very molecules of the air seemed to shift and alter. There was hardly any wind, but every step stirred a thin haze that hugged the ground at their feet that immediately settled in their wake. It made finding their way a little difficult and their footing a bit uncertain, because there were few distinguishing features here. Hardly any landmarks. Everything was jagged scars through black rock, small boulders, and deep, steaming springs surrounded by smatterings of moss. The pattern was so consistent, they worried a little that they were walking in circles, but the call assured him they were headed the right way.
They walked another fifteen minutes until a slight rise of ancient hills appeared on the horizon. It must have been a mountain at some point in the planet's history, weathered down to nothing now but a piedmont of bare stone and ancient rock piles. It felt significant, so Din stopped a moment to scan the distant feature. He should be looking for something particular there, but had no idea where to begin; so he closed his eyes to ask the Force.
After cleansing breaths and a squeeze of Aldor's hand, the Force answered him with the vision of a massive boulder and a pile of volcanic rubble. When he opened his eyes again, they immediately acknowledged a rounded chunk of granite as big as the YT maybe a hundred meters ahead. What he was looking for was on the other side of it. He should keep his eyes on the hollows of the dying mountain to find his destination, and he should leave Aldor here.
When the Force gave him that last bit of information, unreasonable dread had him wondering how he could possibly find his way without her guidance. Who would tell him when to go more Mando or more Jedi? How could he possibly decipher reality from vision without her there to ground him?
"You'll know, my Love," she whispered. "You have everything you need and always have. But I'll be with you. From the beginning to the end." Despite the confidence in her voice, a wave of worry rushed through their tapestry, and she flung herself around him in a deep embrace. She held on like she was afraid she'd fly off into space, and squeezed him so tight, he almost thought she didn't want him to go.
Of course you must go, my Love. Forgive me. I know how strong you are. It's just… you haven't faced anything like this. I only hope I've prepared you for it.
Your wisdom and love are all I need, my Lady. He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly. You have no reason to doubt yourself… and neither do I. It's another of those things we need to work on.
Yes, my Love. We're being unreasonable, aren't we? But I won't pretend this isn't vitally important to your advancement in the Force.
I understand, my Lady.
You always do.
However unreasonable they'd been, her smile convinced Din he needed at least a few more minutes, and dropped his hands from her cheeks to pull her into his arms again. A thousand strange emotions bubbled up in his chest while he embraced her, wondering why this felt so solemn. He knew it was a turn in his Way, and he was prepared for a consequential challenge, but it was more than the typical anxiety this time. It felt like a hundred things hinged on the outcome of this quest. All he had to do was follow through, but right now he couldn't make himself let go of her. "Why do I feel like I'm going to war?" he murmured. "All of a sudden it's like I'm leaving you for days instead of hours."
"You are going to war, my Love," she said quietly. "War against yourself. Your deepest fears and your greatest shortcomings. I was very young and didn't have a fraction of your experience when I faced this challenge. At forty-six, you've survived things I couldn't conceive of at eleven. You've suffered and fought and hurt all your life, my Love, and I fear the Force may challenge you with everything. But you also know yourself better than an eleven-year-old Initiate, and that is the most important thing to know in the Gathering."
Before he could answer, she pulled him down by his hair to crush his lips to hers in a kiss that chased away the last seed of doubt in both their minds. By the Maker and the Force and the Creed, he'd conquer this challenge just to show her what he was made of. Prove his worth even though she never questioned it.
Because you have nothing to prove to me, my Love. I'm entirely convinced. You must prove it to yourself now. That's the greatest challenge for you, my Mandalorian. "Just remember who you are. An honorable man. Keeper of the Elemental Force and founder of Clan Djarin. A son of Mandalore. A son of the Force. Remember that, my Love. Remember it, and you will find your Way."
"I'll remember that Aldor Verische is my mate, and Din Grogu is my son. Knowing that will remind me I am Din Djarin, and this is our Way."
If you need me, you know how to find me.
She held on a little longer, and as they stood there wrapped together, plasma threads extended from every point of contact between them, seeping into every cell. The strands wove into their tapestry until he was incased and imbued with impenetrable sheets of silk and zillo hide. Wrapped in her and guarded faithfully. Stronger than beskar.
You honor me, my Lady.
I wouldn't dare let my Mandalorian go forth without protection.
I won't leave you unprotected either.
It is already here. I feel your blankets around me every second of every day.
But he wanted to do more. Felt he should. So he released her, and took his light saber from his belt and held it out to her. "Take it, my Lady. I won't need it." When he felt her wanting to protest he shook his head. "Please, Aldor. Please take it. I want all our ancestors looking after you and our son." The hilt briefly warmed and trembled in his hand as if it were honored to be offered. "You see, my Lady," he whispered. "This blade is loyal to all of Clan Djarin. Please, cyare. Take it to ease my mind if nothing else."
Aldor nodded and finally took the hilt from him. Just seeing it in her hand and sensing its loyalty gave him so much comfort, he stripped his belt of everything except his vibroblade, and laid it all at her feet. Her sweet face was bright with emotion because she understood the gravity of this Mandalorian gesture. She held back tears as she pulled him close one more time for another deep kiss that had his mind momentarily befuddled. Then she suddenly broke their embrace to dig into her pack, and produced a small lamp droid. "Take this, my Love," she whispered. "You'll need it. And…" She stepped back to engage Djaret Lome's saber, and in a flash had cut a lock of her hair, then tied it in a knot and offered it to him. "Take this too, my Love. To ease my mind."
There was a transfer of power much greater than he anticipated when he took the silken lock in his hand. It spoke to the plasma rushing through their tapestry, and Din sensed from now until they became part of the Force, this simple token would serve as a map back to her if he ever got lost or wounded. It may have been a fancy of his imagination, but he was convinced nothing could harm him while he carried this talisman, so he tucked it into the pouch on his belt and kissed her one more time. "I love you, Aldor," he whispered.
"I love you, Din."
Remember, my Lady. Nothing will take it from us.
"Nothing, my Love."
The moment he passed the granite boulder and out of Aldor's line of sight, a curtain fell between Din and the rest of the planet, like he'd passed through a portal. There was definitely something at work here. He was disoriented and uneasy as an unnatural silence closed in around him, even though nothing had changed in his surroundings. When he sought his Lady's mind to ask her if she'd ever experienced this, he realized their connection was muted. He panicked for at least half a second, but a quick anxious trill of silk through their tapestry made it clear only their minds were sequestered. It made him feel a little better, but it was strange and eerie now to have no mind connection with his family. It was never constant and it had taken him a good five minutes to realize she wasn't there, but total silence was something else entirely, and he actually kind of hated it now.
Feeling ten years old and helpless, he stopped in his tracks to try to get a handle on himself. His senses were fuzzy, and his heart pounding as anxiety screamed through his chest and stomach. He was clueless what to do, until he remembered to give the Springs his anxiety, and to stretch out to the suns long enough to let them remind him all was well. When he received a gentle vibration through his feet and a warm wave of sunlight across his back, he heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes, finally remembering that all he had to do was ask the Force. A breath full of sweet, dewy air cleared his thoughts, and he gradually began to hear strange voices on the chaotic breeze. Whispers that must have been traveling for millions of years over trillions of kilometers. At first he couldn't make sense of the voices, but gradually, after a few minutes, he began to recognize rhythm and verses. Like a song composed of beats racing faster than photons through space or stretching indulgently over the lifespan of a system. It was unsettling, but after he took a moment to inhale another deep breath and stretch out in the Force, he was able to find the chord that would lead him through.
Feeling more attune to this strange opus of energy, Din opened his eyes to cast them around the dust and stone that surrounded him. He followed the timeless rhythm only a few more steps past the boulder, then turned slightly left to face a slope in the weathered hill. There was a massive fall of stone at the foot of the rise, and Din immediately sensed there was a cave behind it.
He looked doubtfully down at his hands. He was grateful for the practice through their Force games, but he wasn't sure his skill was developed enough to move several tons of chunky rubble. Regardless, there was nothing to do but to do it, so Din took a massive breath, straightened his back, and closed his eyes as he extended both hands. Each of his fingers and both palms made a hundred connections at once, and the Force flowed powerfully through the bonds. He readied his muscles for a mighty challenge, but he barely felt it when he spread out his arms to clear his path, and tons of stone flew aside like blaster bolts. All of it landed in a shocking cacophony that made the ground shake, and a tremble through their tapestry proved she heard it. He didn't want her to worry, so he sent her a quick reassurance and made a mental note that he should work on control. Her answer was only a soft caress of steam across his cheek, but it was enough.
Through the settling dust, the entry was now clear. It was little more than a deep fissure in the crumbling mountain, but Din knew he could get through as the call beckoned him closer. He paused a moment when he was only a meter or two away because the air here was heavy, and the ancient tune that had played through every particle of it suddenly went silent. The fissure was just wide and tall enough to accommodate him at his full height and width, but a cold draft breathed through the mouth of the cave almost ominously. There was certainly a concentration of power here, but it wasn't the kind he felt when the Dark Saber tried to take him. It was more like what he felt when he watched Grogu tear the Gauntlet apart a few days ago. The kind that bubbled up in his chest last night when he realized he was living his most cherished vision. Anything that felt like this couldn't be evil, so he opened his eyes and peered defiantly into the darkness.
All he could see was an occasional glint when the suns managed to cast a beam into the cave. There were suggestions of sunlight farther down, but they were so distant, all they produced was a haunting glow. Beyond it looked like nothing but darkness. A trill of anxiety briefly shot through his chest, but then he remembered the lamp droid she gave him. Something he didn't think about that he was more than grateful she did. He pulled it out of the pouch on his belt and engaged it without looking. When it floated out in front of him and positioned itself half a meter ahead and above his line of sight, the knotted lock of Aldor's hair remained wrapped around his fingers. He smiled at this timely reminder that he was still wrapped in her armor, and faintly felt her heartbeat when he closed his eyes and clasped the lock of hair in his hand. It was enough to get him past this moment, and he breathed a deep sigh of relief to know she was with him and he was with her.
He tucked his talisman safely into the secure breast pocket of his duster, and so armed, finally faced the darkness of the cave. The droid could only penetrate so far into the black, but it flooded the immediate area with light, which was enough for him to make out the character of the cave. On all sides and both the floor and ceiling, dark spelothems thrust out from the rock like primitive daggers. A little farther down, just barely within the light, Din could see wide patches of smooth iron-stained bedrock between fields of the same needle-like mineral formations. Given these observations, Din deduced this must have been a lava tube, but it was many millions of years since anything flowed through it. The heat underfoot was significant enough that he felt it rising through the soles of his boots, but it wasn't uncomfortable. There wasn't a smell of sulfur in the air either, so he decided he'd be safe enough, and took a final quick look around the surface of the Iris before stepping down into its heart.
For several hundred meters, the cave was a little tight while he carefully made his way between the sharp spelothems at his feet, but these began to diminish as the floor sloped slightly downward, and the walls opened up. No longer crowded and distracted by diamond-hard spikes, Din lifted his head to look further down the tube, and noticed the first hint of light was just ahead.
He barely advanced twenty meters when a strange sensation stopped him in his tracks. Like he sensed a sound's vibration but didn't really hear it. When he listened closer, the sound manifested into something like a child's laugh. It was distant and echoing, but Din could tell it was coming from the column of light up ahead. For several dozen more steps, he didn't hear anything else, and listened intently with no idea what to expect. When he was within just a few meters of the sunlight, another laugh sounded behind him, much clearer than before. He'd only just turned when he caught a glimpse of a boy running past him. The boy stopped inside the column of light and turned back around to look toward the entrance. He was a stoic, scrawny child with a mop of dark hair and a large, curved nose. Din knew this boy but couldn't place him. He stepped a little closer to get a better look, but the boy didn't move, and remained stubbornly planted there with his eyes bent straight ahead and his expression ambiguous. When Din realized he was mirroring the boy's stance and attitude almost exactly, it dawned on him that this was his younger self. Djarin nose, messy hair, vacant expression, and all.
But this wasn't Din at seven years old. He was maybe ten or eleven here, and by that time had already sworn the Creed and donned his first helmet. Din was confused, expecting to see some important moment from his childhood that the Force needed him to remember, but this wasn't from his childhood. It couldn't be. He was still pondering this when another laugh echoed behind him. Din turned to catch a flash of flaming red hair that flew in the wake of a skinny girl running straight at his younger self. She was barely three meters in front of him when she laughed and launched herself over the boy's head to land in front of the present Din. The expression in the boy's eyes was rapturous, and a miniscule smile perked his lips and stayed there while he watched her.
Din looked closer at the teenage girl, basking proudly in the success of making him smile. She was small and wiry, at that in-between stage when everyone was at their worst. But this girl was graceful and lithe, seeming to float above the ground at her feet while she beamed at the awkward boy like making him smile was her life's mission.
It was Aldor. It had to be. Pale freckles and a crimson bow, making his heart race in another universe at another time. He was as madly in love with her there as he was here.
"Come on, Din!" she exclaimed excitedly in a voice like pure sunshine. "Grogu wants to tell us something. We have to hurry or Master Windu will catch us!"
At last the unmovable young Djarin jogged after her, and Din followed them a little way, until another small patch of sunlight through a narrow fissure revealed young Din and young Aldor kneeling in front of a hoverpod. They were rapt upon a small green baby that gestured from inside the pod, and spoke to them in a language only they could understand. Even present Din couldn't get in on the conversation, but his imagination lit up with possibilities. Maybe how they would smuggle him some nice fresh toads, or what Grogu overheard from the Masters. Din was still in the midst of these daydreams when the young analogs sensed an approaching Master and bid their friend a fond farewell. A quick kiss on the forehead from Aldor, and the brief squeeze of a tiny claw around Din's finger, then they were running off again.
Din followed, but lost them in the darkness, until he came upon the last of the lit fissures another several meters down. Rather than a continuation, this light projected a different scene. They were both a bit older now. Young Din had shot up in height, but he was still a little skinny and gangly with only a sly dusting of facial hair. This was him in his early twenties. Aldor had gained nothing in height, but quite a lot in figure and strength. She was thinner and not quite as strong, but all her slopes and rises were in place, and Din could see in his younger eyes that he wasn't blind to it.
They were sparring. Young Din had the same saber he had now, but Aldor had only one purple blade. Even though he spent almost as many years training as she did in this reality, she overpowered him easily, and had him in the dirt in a matter of minutes. She crouched over him, laughing good-naturedly as young Din cursed and grunted. She offered her hand, and Din took it, but dragged her down to the ground in hopes of making her pay for her laughter. He quickly had her pinned on her back, and even present Din felt the fire building between them in this alternate past. Neither could look away, and both sets of eyes were screaming for satisfaction, staring pointedly at what they loved most in this or any Universe. It was young Aldor who broke the heavy silence, and dragged him down to kiss him passionately. Even elder Din felt the pull of his body, so his young alternate didn't hesitate at first to give in, kissing her greedily with his hands poised to tear her clothes off. But he suddenly stopped.
"No, Aldor," he panted, though he couldn't make himself pull away from her. "I'm sorry, my Lady, but we shouldn't. It's against the Jedi Code."
"The Jedi don't exist anymore," she whispered. "And don't pretend I don't know how you feel about them, Din Djarin. Don't pretend you don't know how we feel about each other."
"I love you more than anything, Aldor. All my life, I've loved you, but…"
"But what, Din? Honestly, my Love. But what?"
Young Din stared down into young Aldor's eyes, and present Din knew exactly what he was thinking. Honor and love. Doctrine and desire. In every incarnation of his life, he would have this sense of duty, and it would always be deeply tied to his feelings. But what duty existed now? Now that there was no Jedi Order and only a shell of Mandalore. In any reality, he would always end up right where he was, pledging his life to family and love. No duty was more vital. No cause more noble.
He'd experienced it before, so he knew the moment when the Djarin heart broke through indoctrination. She felt it too, and only took his cheeks in her hands, promising he was doing nothing wrong as he closed his eyes in bliss. He felt how much she loved him even in this other realm, and he knew with all his soul that all she wanted was him. What was there to stop him? Why the hell should he remain true to things that didn't exist when nothing was more real than her? So he gave in, and the scene faded into the light.
By now, they'd have been together more than twenty years. His heart ached at the thought. Of all the things he regretted, not the least of them was that his time with Aldor was much shorter than it could have been. How much pain might they have spared each other? How many years of bliss could it have been if he only made it to the Jedi Temple? How beautiful to grow up with her and Grogu beside him. For half a moment, he allowed himself to grieve for this unrealized past.
But it didn't last long, because he wondered again if they would love each other as deeply if they'd lived this scenario. In the present reality of events, they were each other's reward for years spent alone in darkness, and they had become remarkably adept at making every moment count. From the phantom past he just saw, he wasn't sure it could have produced that kind of gratitude.
Regardless of the gratitude that might be possible in any past, it was clear that Din Djarin and Aldor Verische were mated in every future they would survive. It filled him a strange sort of joy to think how fortunate they were to be destined for the person they most loved, and no matter what past or future might have altered their lives, Din was satisfied to know they would be together in all of them.
Reassured and certain of the state of things here and now, Din looked further down the slope of the ancient lava tube, and saw another distant glow of stale sunlight ahead. The darkness was thick in between, and Din was more than grateful for the lamp droid as he carefully continued on his way. The speleothems were all but gone, and the walls of the tube were smoother as it descended deeper into the remnants of the mountain. He walked on for a long time, but didn't feel like he was covering any ground. The light source didn't appear to be getting any closer, and Din began to worry he'd slipped out of the realm of real time. He was close to panicking when he sensed something behind him, and spun around just in time to hear a familiar mechanical singing sound just as instinct commanded him to block his face with his vambraces just before a powerful strike from a black plasma blade jarred his locked shoulders.
But he never saw where it came from. Never saw a figure running to him or away from him. Maybe it was just a warning or a test, and had his theory confirmed when he turned back around to find a pale beam of sunlight pouring in from a fissure right in front of him, and an image forming in the center of it.
The scene was a bed in a dark, dingy room, where two armored Mandalorians spoke soft words of Mando'a in unison, their voices familiar. When he listened closer, he realized it was himself and Bo Katan Kryze sitting together on this bed, speaking the Mandalorian marriage vows. The scene sent a ripple of discomfort down his spine. So unsettling now to hear himself speak the vows to Bo Katan. To speak these vows at all. Despite the discomfort, he watched the scene unfold in morbid fascination, understanding now that he was seeing another alternate outcome for his present life.
Both of them spoke in somber attitudes, and it was clear Bo Katan didn't quite know what to do with him, sitting there so stiff and silent. At last, she seemed to make up her mind, and nodded at him. Alternate Din nodded back, granting permission. Thus given, Bo Katan laid her hands on either side of his helmet, and slowly lifted it off. In his own eyes, Din saw acceptance, but no excitement. Respect, but no passion. He was sitting there stock straight like he was locked in place. Knowing himself as well as he did, this was a clear sign he was deeply uncomfortable. He didn't know what to do or how to be, and had absolutely no idea what to say.
So Bo Katan had to be the first to act, and set to work stripping his armor. His alternate self sat stiffly throughout the entire ceremony, until he was called upon to return the favor. He was shaky and clumsy and clearly out of his element. Nothing about this stirred any part of him, and it felt unnatural. He thought he'd experience at least some trill of bodily excitement, but even after years of celibacy, it wasn't enough to entice him. The ritual was conducted so mechanically and passively, it became crystal clear that their marriage would have been mostly political, and completely passionless. He knew now he could never live like that. With no outlet, the beskar furnace in his chest would have exploded catastrophically.
As much as Din cared for her and truly supported her, and as much as Bo Katan admired him, they never could have loved each other the way he and Aldor did. If he was marrying Aldor in this scene, he would already have half her clothes off and his dick buried deep inside her. With Bo Katan, all he could do was try to relax when she awkwardly kissed him, and lament when he felt nothing at all. A powerful contrast to all the passion he felt across universes when he watched himself with Aldor in their alternate past.
The scene faded as his thoughts remained on burying his dick inside Aldor, just to remind himself what was waiting in this reality. When he'd successfully reassured himself that their tapestry was still in place, he continued mindlessly ahead toward another in this second series of sunbeams.
An echo of distant angry voices grew louder when he came upon a chaotic scene. He was surrounded by a circle of Mandalorians. Bo Katan was covered in blood and lifeless at his feet, and the Armorer lay headless beside her while Din held the Dark Saber aloft. The rest of them shouted insults and accusations. Voices he once respected called him a traitor and a murderer, demanding he explain himself. When he tried to speak, but was shouted down for attempting to answer their questions, his temper got the better of him, and he threw back a unit of dissenting Mandalorians with the Force in sheer frustration. The mob became crazed and bloodthirsty the moment he unwittingly exposed his ability, and the ending scene was nothing but a pile of armored Mandalorians rushing the "Jedi spy" and what was left of his traitor wife.
This was all the Force had to show him here, and Din stood staring at the column of light in relief and reflection. It was just like he imagined. Things would have ended almost exactly the same, only in this possible past, he would have died too, defending himself and a wife he didn't love from a mob of their own people. He was glad Grogu was nowhere to be seen in this vision, because Din couldn't bear to think of what they would have done to him.
Din could only surmise the Force showed him these things to remind him he was where he needed to be, in a timeline where it all worked out exactly the way the Force intended. However pleasant the first visions might have been and however tragic the second, he wound up comfortably in between. Where he'd been all his life, and where it made sense he should be.
With these confirming visions, every regret he ever had about his past fled his mind, and the Force encouraged him to remember this lesson. Din assured it he would, and thanked it again for leading him this way, and for placing Grogu and Aldor in his life at a time when he most needed them. He acknowledged he was always meant to be both Mandalorian and Force-wielder, and he was glad the Force allowed him to find the balance between. He agreed it was good to be in this timeline, and the Force urged him ahead just as he realized he passed a test he didn't know he was taking.
When Din looked down the tube again. There were no more hints of sunlight to be seen, but he knew there was something at the end of the tunnel, where the call was waiting for him to finally answer it. Determined, Din continued deeper into the planet's crust, wondering what other tests the Force might challenge him with.
As he advanced, the cave grew darker and darker, and the air was much heavier and a little cooler. The humidity was intense, however, and Din was sweating like he had a fever, trembling with cold while his skin felt like it was burning. His heart pounded mercilessly against his ribs, and his stomach was churning like he hadn't eaten for days. It took him at least twenty meters to realize what he was feeling was a concentrated onslaught of all the ways his body reacted to anxiety. If that were the case, surely he could overcome the sickly feeling with a combination of the Force and his own mind. Once again, he reminded himself he was being tested, and stopped for a moment to stretch out again. When he closed his eyes, a gentle rumble underfoot soothed him with softer energies. He thanked it humbly, and in return, gave the Cave a piece of his anxiety. This was something the rock said it needed, and rewarded him with a beautiful gust of dry, temperate air that swept the clammy feeling utterly away.
He was just about ready to get going again in a more relaxed state when he sensed a presence headed his way from the direction he just came. He turned when he heard a soft rustle of silk, and was shocked to see Aldor running for him as if she barely regarded the darkness.
He could only think this meant there was some danger above and rushed to meet her. "My Lady!" She was trembling and breathless, her eyes bright and wide. He immediately embraced her the moment she was near, because he took her state of mind as something akin to panic. "What is it, my Lady? What happened? Is Grogu okay? Tell me."
"I felt something," she breathed. "Something… something I didn't think was possible."
"What, my Lady? What do you feel?"
"I… I don't know how to explain it," she whispered in a shaky voice. "I just… I just… randomly put my hand on my stomach… and… and…" As if she didn't know how to finish her sentence, she finally took his hand in hers, and pressed it into her belly. At first he was confused, until he felt a gentle flutter under his palm. His blood rushed with heat and excitement, because it was more than just a flip of her stomach. There was a life with its own Force inside her. A new Spirit that felt like their tapestry.
For the briefest nanosecond, Din was insane with joy, but it only took that long for a flash of bloody visions to kill it stone dead. He snatched his hand from hers on instinct, and stepped back. "How?" he asked. "It's not… it's not possible, my Lady."
"A miracle," she breathed. "A gift." With no further explanation like he expected, she regaled him with kisses. Ecstatic kisses Din didn't know what to do with because he was utterly confused and shocked. He wanted to mirror her happiness, but everything in him told him this was all wrong. He knew for fact he couldn't father children, and he knew she couldn't carry a child. He had his moments when he thought he could alter those circumstances, but the desire to attempt it had faded over the last few months. Faded because not one vision of his daughter was anything near the sweet little angel Aldor tried to show him now. The more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense that she would act this way, because only a few weeks ago, they had this discussion again, and both persisted in the belief that their daughter should never be conceived, whether they were capable of it or not.
She sensed where his mind had turned, and her expression fell. When he opened his mouth to try to reason with her and soothe her, something in her looks suddenly struck him as wrong. Her eyes weren't right. Neither was her expression or the flow of her thoughts. Everything was flat and two-dimensional. Nothing like his multi-faceted Lady Verische. There was no plasma. No silk or steam. He barely noticed her kisses a second ago because they didn't stir him. When it occurred to him that she never addressed him as her Love in all these effusions of joy, he knew this wasn't his Lady. It was another test. Another lesion on his heart that needed to heal.
When the manifestation before him realized he wasn't deceived, the false Aldor's face grew dark and unnatural. Her eyes burned with such rage, red replaced blue, and this demon drew its sabers as if it were about to lunge at him. But once again, Din wasn't deceived. He merely turned on his heel and continued on. The demon didn't follow because it had no power over him.
Of course the Force would test him with this. A desire so deep he used to think he couldn't bear to be denied. It was still there and always would be, but every time he thought about it, he always saw the same horrific image of his wife bleeding to death, and the soulless girl she would leave behind. He honestly didn't care at this point if it was a false vision, because he was just so tired of seeing it. Unnatural forces may have taken their ability to have children together, but the result had become what was natural for them. Like she said so many months ago, it wouldn't do to cheat fate, because the Force would have its due. So he no longer indulged in the fantasy of an angelic daughter they would raise together. After this, he never would again.
He paused long enough to close his eyes and find the true Aldor. He still couldn't hear her thoughts without words, but he found the feeling of her right away. She was at least half a klick away from where he left her, probably making camp. That knowledge alone was enough to ease his mind, and he heaved a massive sigh of relief, more than tempted to run back up the ancient lava plume just to kiss her. But the Force wasn't done with him. He had seen no crystals and the call still waited for him to answer, so he continued forward.
He must have taken a bad step, because the next thing Din knew, he lost his footing somehow and found himself sliding down a steep incline of smooth rock, flat on his back. He drew his vibroblade and stabbed it into the rock as he fell, but the knife barely held, and before he had a second to collect himself, the brittle rock gave way. He was falling faster now, and though he tried again with his vibroblade, it barely dug in and only slightly slowed him down.
The bottom came up quickly beneath him, and he braced himself for the landing. The incline levelled off a little, but before he could even register it, he hit the bottom. Inertia forced the back of his head into the hard metamorphic rock, then suddenly all that existed was nothing.
It was a nasty hit, so when he came to, his vision was blurry and his head aching. The more he blinked, the more he realized his surroundings had changed. A mechanical hum was all he could hear, and he felt like he was tucked inside a box. As his mind started to clear and his eyes began to focus, he realized the hum sounded like a hyperdrive, and the scent of fuel and ozone pervaded the stale air. At last, he managed to deduce that he was on a starship. He was almost positive of it, but his vision was still wrong, and he couldn't be sure. He blinked a few times to try to clear his eyes completely, but bearings and readings suddenly flashed across them. When he reached for his face, his fingers touched beskar and transparisteel.
Why did he have his helmet on? Wasn't he just in a cave… somewhere? Wasn't he unarmored and searching for something? But what was he searching for? Wait a minute… why was he on a starship? It felt like the Crest, but… didn't something happen to it? When was that? How long had it been?
And where was his boy? He did have a son, didn't he?
He took his helmet off and tried again to focus. It was incredibly difficult because his head was throbbing. He cast his naked eyes around and confirmed that he was indeed in his bunk on the Crest. But it didn't make sense. For a long time, he was somewhere else, wasn't he? Where had he been, though? And wasn't he with someone the whole time? Someone he cared for…
A vision of pale auburn silk and crimson lips suddenly flashed over his eyes. Moments that made his entire body smile. Symphonies of notions around the table after dinner. Nights and mornings buried in something so beautiful he only knew one word to describe it.
"Aldor."
The moment her name passed his lips, his memory came flooding back. The Eye. His son. His mate. What was he doing in his armor? What was he doing on the Crest? He flung the bunk door open and found himself in the hold exactly as he left it. He rushed up the ladder into the cockpit, hoping to find them there, but it was empty. He dropped back down into the hold, not bothering with the ladder because he had to find them. It can't have been a dream. It can't be.
But there were only so many places they could be, and after he looked in every unreasonable nook and cranny, it became clear he was alone. Utterly alone.
He dreamed all of it. A year of contentment and love and family all conjured in his fevered head. There was nothing. He was nothing. Not an Elemental, but a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter on his own, no better than a droid. Not a father or a husband. No symphonies of notions. Nothing but the emptiness of space.
All this came crashing down at once, and he felt his chest growing weak, barely able to keep himself whole while pain ripped through his heart. It all seemed so real. The woman he could share thoughts with. The son he could play with and teach and learn from. The planet that became his one true home. Force training and purpose and…
Wait. Didn't he just open the bunk hatch with the Force? Din called himself back from the darkness, and looked around the hull more critically when he remembered this. His eyes seized on the ladder to the cockpit. Didn't he jump down from there and land without a thud?
His hand went automatically to his breast pocket, and pulled out a lock of auburn hair. His touchstone. He looked up again as he kissed the knotted lock like a holy relic, and saw only a lamp droid dutifully hovering over him at the bottom of a slope in an ancient cave. His hands were bare and the only beskar on him was his vambraces. He was in the cave again, in clothes his lover made for him, and his heart was still wrapped in a tapestry of molten gold and silken plasma. He could have wept with relief, but he was too confused. He didn't understand why the Force would do this to him. It was sinister and pointless. Such a vision seemed meant to teach him how to appreciate what he had, but it was a lesson he didn't need to learn because he thanked the Force and everything in it every morning he woke beside her.
Then again, this was perhaps his deepest fear. To this day, he worried he'd wake up to exactly what the Force just showed him, or sitting upright in the N1 in the middle of nowhere, lost in more ways than one. In his mind, such a thing would be worse than losing them, because if he dreamed them up, it meant everything in his life that was worth fighting for was only a fragment of his lonely imagination. But when he looked back on the last year of his life, or even the last seven, the moments he remembered most felt more real than anything he could have come up with. He couldn't have dreamed them up, because he didn't know before that he could love something as intensely as he loved his family, and never allowed himself to dream at all until he met them.
He looked down again at the lock of hair between his fingers, and smoothed his thumb over the glistening bundle, savoring how it felt between his fingers. How it smelled and the way it tumbled so softly over her shoulders and breasts. The way it flew after her when she was tearing through the Gauntlet or playing Force games. His heart burst with a gorgeous rain of plasma and silk, just thinking of these things and feeling the essence of her all through his blood and spirit. There was no denying that feeling. No denying her heart would remain comfortably beside his from the beginning to the end.
For a little while, he stayed right where he was, sitting at the bottom of a massive slope while he let his mind empty itself of the things he didn't want to keep there. He was still rattled from his fall and a little disjointed. He longed to see his family, because he felt like he'd been away for weeks. He took a moment to close his eyes and find her again. He sensed she was anxious and pacing, and sent a deep tremor through the Springs to comfort her. When a watery caress softly swept over his shoulders, he felt much better.
Less woozy and feeling stronger, he stretched out again just enough to recenter. His mind was still reeling from everything he'd seen because it felt like he'd lived the first half of his life over again. A life that wasn't terribly enjoyable the first time around. But he was still on the Eye and he could feel their presence, and that was enough to rouse him again. After a swig from his canteen and another moment with his talisman, he returned it to his breast pocket.
Din smiled to himself when the call grew louder, and he could feel he was very close to his destination. Father Lome was becoming impatient, and so was Din. He knew it wasn't for him to decide when he'd been adequately tested, but he was more than ready to get back to his family and find out how Grogu fared through his own challenge. So Din got back to his feet with a little middle-aged struggle, grunting and sore as he popped his back and recovered his balance.
The lamp droid dutifully went back to work as soon as Din was up, and illuminated something like a landing at the junction of two distinct geological features. The rock here was more sedimentary than volcanic or metamorphic, and Din sensed there was a large chamber on the other side of the natural archway in front of him. Something more ancient than the lava tube.
At first, Din was determined and more than ready to charge ahead, come what may. But just as he took a third step, something trilled in his chest that suggested danger. Something sinister and… slimy. The air suddenly felt heavy and humid again, and his hair stood up on end like he was in the presence of pure evil.
"You never did know when to stop."
The voice turned his blood to ice. Cold, dead, and clinical. He couldn't see any hint of him, but then he sensed a searing malice trying to bore into him from a dark recess just before the archway. Din stared down the cold dark eyes he sensed staring back, until the Moff revealed himself. Out of the darkness and into the faint light, the lean frame and sardonic expression appeared before him, and regarded him like he was toddler that needed to be punished.
Mando instinct told Din to square up and set his stance, but he decided it felt wrong. The Moff's face looked sunken and sickly, and all Din could feel from him now was envy and pain. A wretched shell of what used to be a human man. How empty and worthless he looked! Din feared nothing of him anymore, so he didn't really feel the need to fight. Gideon had no soul to give him purpose, and no cause to make him strong, so he was already beaten.
Completely at ease but more than ready, Din decided to just let the Moff glare and fume, content to wait it out while Gideon formulated whatever snide remark or empty threat he could think of that might rile Din's temper.
"I'm surprised to see you unarmored," the Moff said in his annunciated, matter-of-fact way. "Armor or not, you're no better than a droid, Bounty Hunter."
"Yeah," Din said with a lilt of mockery. "No better than the droid that took out most of your unit on Nevarro."
"But a droid is no better than its programming, Mando. What happened to the traitors that programmed you?" A slight sinister smile pulled at the Moff's thin mustache, waiting to see the response he expected.
But Din couldn't give it to him, and instead released a mirthless laugh, truly astounded that this man's image alone used to fill him with rage. "You thought I'd be angry, but I'm not. Because you're right, Gideon. I was no better than a droid, but those who programmed me failed because they didn't know me. They thought they could use me, but like you, they were wrong. I was no better than a droid, but here I stand, a breathing human man. More than I can say for you. Because things have changed. We sensed it and changed with it. We move on while you remain in a world that doesn't exist anymore. Whatever power you had over me is no more than an illusion now."
Again, the Moff smirked, but Din could see a flare behind his eyes that belied the even tone of his soft, slippery voice. "Oh, that's right. You're a Force Sensitive. You expected to surprise me. You forget that I... know... everything. You think your Lady stumbled on some ancient mystery? Do you really believe any of it makes you special?"
Din calmly shook his head. "No, I don't. I'm still a decommissioned Mandalorian Bounty Hunter. You were right about that much, Gideon. My heritage means nothing now. Never really did. What matters is what I inherited. Something you can't touch. Something you know nothing of."
"What could you possibly mean?" the Moff asked mockingly. "The Force?" He laughed in an empty, satisfied way. "Please. I've studied Force Sensitives for decades. Force sensitivity is a trait like any other. It can be isolated, copied, or destroyed."
"But you still haven't done it, have you?" Din asked.
"All in good time."
"The thing is, Gideon, you're out of time."
He felt the Moff grow tense and agitated, though his expression barely faltered. Just a brief press of his thin lips and a twitch of his eye that told Din all he needed to know. That to the Moff, Din's appearance and manner were enraging, because it wasn't what he expected. It was almost funny, so Din huffed and shook his head. "You're nothing without your trinkets, aren't you? Worthless when faced with something you know nothing about. You look at me and see a Mandalorian out of his armor. You know it makes me vulnerable. But what you fail to see, Gideon, what you've always failed to understand, is that you can know everything and still know nothing. And you've never known a single thing about me."
Gideon laughed in his quiet, mocking way. "I know you barely defeated me in your armor. How do you expect to defeat me without it?"
"You're already defeated, Gideon. Because you will never know the true strength of the Force. Something you will never own or understand." Din smirked. "The thing I gladly took from you."
Din felt the Moff snap, and ducked and rolled under a swoop of black plasma. He was on his feet again before Gideon could turn, and managed to face him with his vambraces crossed before a brutal hit forced him back to his knees. But Din was ready for it, and when the Moff came at him again with another agitated swoop, Din easily batted it aside with the Force, and jumped back to his feet as Gideon struggled to set his stance. Gideon's eyes were practically red now. He dropped his cool façade, and now frantically thrust and slashed while Din easily danced around him. He came in for another hit, but Din drew his vibroblade, and glancing off another fruitless swing of black plasma, he jumped away to face off again.
Gideon was grunting like an exhausted tauntaun, staring Din down in a state of deep agitation that had him practically trembling. This was the Moff at his weakest. Every ranked Imp at his weakest. That moment when all his power faded in the face of a foe that wasn't afraid of him.
"Rage, Gideon. That's what that is. It makes you lose focus. Makes you lose." When the Moff lunged again, Din knocked him off balance with the Force, then ducked under a savage swipe of the Dark Saber, and rammed his vibroblade straight into Gideon's lung.
Din drew out his blade as the Moff sank against the stone, staring wildly as if he couldn't believe the Mandalorian beat him again. For that moment, Din almost pitied him. He shook his head at the gasping Moff, who tried to sputter out another insult. Din didn't need to hear him say it. Just more trite words he wanted to waste his last breath on. "I'll always be a Mandalorian," Din said to save him the trouble. "Have always been an Elemental. And you will never take that from me. I grieve the life you lived, Gideon. A life with no hope or creation. I pity you for that. But you will not steal that pleasure from us just because you were too weak to find out for yourself."
Din expected him to fall, but at the same moment he remembered this was just a vision, the Moff's skin grew dry and black. Every cell of him gradually transformed into a desiccated husk, and he disintegrated into nothing but a cloud of ash.
That was all the Moff had ever been. A black cloud of ash blocking every drop of sunshine. But clouds always dissipate and ash settles back into the dirt. Like every other evil thing, there would always be an opposite Force to challenge it, and countless in-betweens to change it into something more useful.
As if the cloud of ash were reacting to Din's thoughts, it briefly swirled around in front him, then settled on the ground, where another figure manifested to speak in a hauntingly familiar voice.
"I guess you don't need your armor after all."
Din sent the lamp droid a little farther ahead until it illuminated the red hair and playful smirk of Bo Katan Kryze. Din settled a little, because he didn't sense anything dark here. "Lady Kryze," he said in greeting. "I may not need my beskar, but it will always be a part of me."
Bo Katan sighed and shook her head. "Look at you. Honorable as ever with nothing to hide that handsome face. No illusions. No hubris. You are just… Din Djarin. Force and all."
"What would you have done when I couldn't hide it anymore?" Din asked. "And trust me, Lady Kryze, it would have shown after a while."
"I think it always did." Her smirk softened a little. "It's what makes you such a good leader."
Din scoffed. "I've never seen it. I don't have the malice to force people to follow me."
"For such a brilliant soldier, you can be dumb as an Alamite," Bo Katan quipped. "Haven't you noticed that people want to follow you? You don't have to force them. You never did. You have something people need in a leader but never expect to get. Empathy. Your eyes make it so obvious… no wonder you kept your face hidden before."
Din nodded. "Even after I lost faith, I only let Grogu see my face because I was afraid people would see my heart in my eyes and take advantage of it. He and Aldor helped me to overcome that fear." He paused when he saw the expectation in her expression, and sighed deeply in response because he knew he'd see that look in more and more faces if his visions were true. "I only hope you're right, because I sense it's my destiny to lead. Forgive me for my eccentricities, Lady Kryze, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it."
"The best leaders never want to lead," Bo Katan answered. "That was my flaw. I thought I had a right to it. Killed and stole and lied to get it back. Died for it in the end like I always knew I would. And what did it accomplish? The only positive result of my leadership was you."
"I'm honored, Lady Kryze, but I don't agree," Din countered. "Not all Mandalorians are traitors. Some supported you. If nothing else, you showed them the truth. That Mandalorians are stronger together. It's not your fault half the factions stopped listening the minute we killed the Moff."
"Maybe," Bo Katan sighed. "But I'm not here to talk about me or what I did right or wrong. I'm here to tell you what you already know."
"I know I'm where I need to be," Din assured her. "I can wield the Force, but still have the training and knowledge of a Mandalorian warrior. There's wisdom in it, and I swear to you, Lady Kryze, I will carry it with me until I'm part of the Force."
"I only hope you'll forgive me for keeping the truth from you. That I knew your bloodlines and hoped to capitalize on it. She knew it too, but we had different motives. It was just dumb luck that you turned out to be the truest Mandalorian of all of us, with no motive but to unite Mandalore. Just like Vae Moyrah; true 'til the end even after your own people turned on you. However many Midi-chlorians are floating around in your blood, that blood has always been Mandalorian."
Din's temper momentarily flared at Bo Katan's confession, but it was gone the second she said his foremother's name. He let the last spark of anger out on a deep sigh, and decided there was no reason for it. "I finally realized just a few days ago that you knew. I don't know how either of you meant to use that information, but it doesn't matter now. I don't really care because I've known for months my Way lies between Mandalorian and Jedi. Nothing has proven that more than today. I can't exist as just one or the other."
"I think you've always existed somewhere in the middle," Bo Katan affirmed. "I think that must be why you're the wisest man I ever knew. The bravest too. Of all those fuckers who fawned and bowed when they saw the Dark Saber in my hand, you were the only one who believed in me more than the Saber. For that, I will always be grateful." Bo Katan paused to heave a deep sigh, and looked him over deeply. Her voice lost its saucy edge as she quietly added, "And for the record, Din, I did love you. It wasn't the way I should have loved you, and nothing like the way you're loved now. All I can say is when I was with you, I felt righteous. I kept thinking that if this honorable man supports me, I must be doing something right. I liked you there as a reminder of that, and at the time, I suppose it was something like love to me."
Din nodded. "I know. I didn't love you the way I should either, but that couldn't be helped. I've been bound to another since the beginning of time, and will be through the end of it. I'm only sorry you had to die to bring me back to her. I'm sorry you had to die to wake me up. It's not fair, but…"
"… the Force does what it needs to, whether it's fair or not." Bo Katan's mouth perked back into her signature smirk. "Don't worry about me, Din Djarin. I'm free now thanks to you. Only remember what we learned together. Remember that people want to follow leaders who rule with respect and wisdom. Who let people be free, and never presume to tell them how. I can't imagine a better being for the job than Din Djarin." She paused and shrugged. "Except maybe your kid."
Din chuckled. "He's wiser and tougher than me, so I listen to him."
"You listen to whatever speaks to you. Maybe that's what it is. That you hear things other people can't because you listen. To rocks and lava and dark matter. To little green fifty-year-old babies..." Bo Katan laughed and leaned back against the cave wall, then looked him over again, as if she were confirming her words with his appearance. "You look right like this," she continued. "Your face and everything. You look like a man who knows who he is and what he stands for. Just don't ever forget it."
"I never could, Lady Kryze."
"Good thing."
As quickly as she appeared, the image of Bo Katan faded until Din was left again in an empty cave. He slumped a moment against the cave wall, trying to figure out why this exchange exhausted him more than his fight with the phantom Moff. He realized after a few minutes that the weight he carried for more than two years was nothing but unwarranted guilt. Guilt that he didn't love her. Guilt that he didn't protect her. The crushing realization that nothing he did for Mandalore mattered that much to any of them except the one he couldn't save. Worry that he just didn't do enough because his heart was never in it.
He didn't realize that until just now. He wanted a united Mandalore and he wanted to do his part, but Grogu became Din's top priority the moment he took him from the Imps. Neither the Watch nor Bo Katan nor the whole of Mandalore did half of what Grogu did to heal his heart. Even in the thick of things, when he really thought for half a second that they could make Mandalore their home, in the back of his mind, Din could always see that it was never a good place for his boy. Certainly not a great life for an exceptional being like Grogu to train in the Fighting Corps. Though Grogu would have advanced spectacularly through the Mandalorian ranks, the boy could never be complete without Aldor and the Force to guide him. Downright obvious that Din wasn't complete without them either.
Still, within the small remnant of Mandalorian programming he retained, some part of him was convinced he betrayed his people. Certain he failed Bo Katan, and absolutely positive that leaving was cowardly. But the larger parts of him couldn't think of a single thing he could have done differently to prevent it, or to save the true ideals of the Mandalorian Creed. Truthfully, that was what broke him in the first place. That despite all his attempts to quiet bickering factions, and all the blood he shed and took for his people, half of them despised him. The other half would have turned when they found out he had Jedi ability, even though all their original tenets valued diversity and inclusion. It would have come out either in a cataclysmic burst of temper like he saw in the lava tube, or through whispers from those who knew and never told him. It would be so easy to be angry about that. So easy to hate those who kept the truth from him. But it didn't mean anything now, so what was the use of getting angry? And if it was no use to get angry, it was no use to feel guilty either. The Force did what it needed to, and nobody could have changed that.
The weight in his chest that'd been there since he left Mandalore gradually dissolved within a sea of molten gold, and Din felt lighter. Free at last from a darkness that festered needlessly in his soul for so long. Something in him sparked back to life, and cleared his senses of all the superfluous worry that had been distracting him. Everything around and inside him suddenly snapped into focus, and when he looked around the cave again, he finally saw it. A galaxy of glinting crystals he didn't notice before utterly filled the wall in front of him, surrounding the archway into the chamber beyond. The crystals all sang together in some haunting harmony so ancient no living being could remember it. A sound as soft and welcoming as a symphony of notions, urging him through the natural archway and into a massive cavern.
The air was much colder and damper here than the lava tube, and the ground wasn't as warm. Every step he took echoed into infinity, like he'd just walked through another portal in spacetime. When the lamp droid finally caught up to him, its brightest setting couldn't touch the top of the cavern, but illuminated most of the walls, revealing the chamber to be much taller than it was wide. The crystals sparkling throughout the dark stone gave him the sensation of floating in deep space with nothing but stars for company. A beautiful feeling, a little like the peace he experienced when he was with Aldor. Like he was part of everything and nothing simultaneously.
When the droid came to rest after a quick run around the perimeter, its light illuminated a wide vein of crystals that drew Din's eyes. The parent sedimentary rock was a deep, dark purple with huge inclusions of black metamorphic stone. Imbedded in one of these inclusions, three points of light blinked at him purposefully. The moment he noticed them, each sent a powerful beam shooting into his chest that stirred the golden warmth inside. Uplifting sensations that drew him closer with their gorgeous harmony of smoky wisps, plasma steam, and gilded dark matter bands. It spread through his blood like some augmenting serum that made him invincible, and almost had him convinced that there was nothing stronger in the Universe.
But he refused to let this surge go to his head, and focused more intently on the three twinkling crystals that beckoned him. All three were completely translucent, but two were stained with colors so faint he wasn't sure if he imagined it. Or maybe only he could see it. One glowed with a hint of pale lavender, and the other a suggestion of green. The third was so clear, colorless, and dim, he barely saw it. When he stepped closer, the dim crystal flashed at him, and in it he saw faces and Mandalorians and his lover and son in bursts of moments through the past and future. All buried in the core of this crystal that at first glance barely appeared to be there at all. Din was compelled to touch it, and the moment his fingertips brushed against it, it popped out of the rock and into his hand. The other two followed suit when he ghosted his fingers across them.
Three crystals? Were they all his? He wasn't sure. Aldor never said anything about multiple crystals at once. But she did say he wasn't a typical Force-adept, and these clearly weren't typical crystals. The longer he held them, the more he felt an attachment to each. They wanted to serve him, and assured him he was worthy before he could ask the question. The lavender one warmed his skin where it rested, and reassured him he'd know what to do. The green one almost tickled his palm, excited to see what it's master was capable of. The ghostly one was heaviest, to the point it almost seemed to sink into Din's very skin, and spread out through his veins like his own blood.
Yes. All three of these crystals were his. He felt it through and through. Maybe it was appropriate. He was still a Mandalorian after all, and it made sense that he would have multiple crystals for multiple weapons. Either way, he was honored and humbled, and he thanked the crystals for their generosity in choosing him.
In return, they prompted him to look again at the cave wall they came from, and in following their advice, Din noticed two sparkling veins of color running through the black inclusion. One was the same grey stone he used to make Aldor's signet, and the other composed of Grogu's purple and orange gradient. It couldn't be a coincidence. To confirm his feelings, Din gently drew his fingers along the fine veins in the black rock, and without first thinking about it, humbly asked the stone if it would allow him a chunk of it for his hilt. The rock enthusiastically accepted, and Din took a few minutes of concentration and a little strain to cut into it with the Force. He found the layers where the rock was weakest, and managed to extract a chunk that he could easily carve down to comfortably fit his hand.
He stood for a moment just studying the rock and crystals, amazed that the Force had been so generous. He felt so attached to them all, he was already building weapons in his head. Could feel the power coursing through him. Could feel the purpose.
He'd almost forgotten the call until it blared right in his ear, and sent his eyes upward to a small outcropping more than twenty meters above the purple vein in the cave wall. He secured his crystals and stone in the pouch on his belt, and purely on instinct, reached out with the Force to take hold of a small, square object just sitting on the natural shelf high above. He had it halfway down before he realized it was a Holocron. Of all things, a Holocron in the depths of a cave that had been closed up for thousands of years, on a planet in the middle of nowhere near the edge of the galaxy. A Holocron that had been waiting thousands of years for Din Djarin to find it.