PURPOSE | The Mandalorian

XXXXIV

I collapsed as soon as my feet hit the floor of the tunnel below, holding my face in my hands as I wept.

Maybe the Maker was kind, not cruel, for allowing me to be with him for the last several months. Letting me be close to my best friend, my lover, my riduur, before it was his time to go. Maybe that was my purpose. Maybe my purpose was to be what Din needed to continue forward. Maybe it was me that allowed him to keep being true to who he was, even if it broke everything apart in the end.

If that was my purpose, being the reason Din was happy until the end... I guess I could live with that for the rest of my life.

Cara's voice snapped me out of my own head.

"You loved him."

It wasn't a question. I slowly glanced up at her and the unconscious child in her arms, sniffing as I swiped at my eyes and eventually nodding my head in reply. My already tight chest squeezed even more when I heard quiet voices floating down the opening of the vent.

She knelt down beside me, letting me fall into her as I buried my face in her neck. "I'm so sorry," She breathed as her voice cracked, wrapping her free arm around my torso. "I had no idea."

The sounds of my sobs were the only noise that filled the tunnels. I allowed myself a few minutes of quiet despair before I boarded my feelings up, shoving them down deep inside of me as I pulled away from Cara's comforting embrace.

"We have to keep going," I said weakly, letting her help me to my feet. We needed to find the other Mandalorians in the tunnels if we were going to have any shot of getting out alive.

I just hoped these Mandalorians weren't the shoot first, ask questions later type.

Both Greef and Cara nodded gravely, and the shocktrooper remained by my side as we wondered down the long, dark halls.

We walked in thick silence for what felt like and eternity. "Do you have any idea where we're going?" Greef asked quietly, and I heard the silent prayer in his voice that told me he really hoped we weren't lost.

I flicked my eyes to his, and his posture dropped in disappointment. "I've never been here before," I admitted solemnly. "I was hoping Din would be the one leading us out of here."

I swallowed the hot, think lump forming in my throat again. Don't do this, I thought to myself, Not now, in front of the others.

My mind raced at a million miles an hour. I was terrified about finding the other Mandalorians in the tunnels, grief still pressed down on me over the death of my riduur, and I started to doubt that the three of us were ever going to find a way out of these fucking tunnels.

Wait. Three of us?

Where was IG?

I stopped, furrowing my brows as I whipped my head around to look back down the hall we had just finished walking through. Both Greef and Cara flinched at my quick movements, their hands flying to their blasters at their hips.

"What is it?" Cara asked tightly.

I sniffed again, and my face felt dry and puffy as I asked sternly, "Where's the droid?"

Realization simultaneously dawned on both of their faces, and all of us sprinted back to the vent opening.

And almost as if I had summoned the reprogrammed droid, IG was standing there, just below the opening of the vent, with my riduur using him as a crutch.

Din's visor whipped to mine as my name left his lips.

I froze. He was breathing. Moving.