Metanoia | The Mandalorian ON HOLD

Chapter 24

They emerged from the tunnel, looking at the dead stormtroopers, when suddenly, they heard roaring of an engine. They looked around and noticed a TIE Fighter flying towards them.

"Moff Gideon!" Shouted Cara and they aimed their blasters out at the ship as Din pushed Juno with the child behind him. They fired at the ship as it fired back at them, both missing.

"He missed." Said Karga.

"He won't next time." Replied Din.

"Our blasters are useless against him." Stated Cara.

"Let's make the baby do the magic hand thing." Suggested Karga and Juno chuckled, looking at him and then at the child. "Come on, baby! Do the magic hand thing." He said while wiggling his fingers. The child just looked up at him, cooed and waved back and Juno laughed. "I'm out of ideas."

"I'm not." Said Din, pulling out his blasters.

"Here he comes!" Warned Cara. Din took the jetpack and attached it to his back. Cara started shooting at the ship as it approached and Did activated the jetpack, flying up when Gideon passed them, attaching his line to the ship as it flew around. Juno looked up and then at the child nervously and he cooed in response.

They watched as Gideon tried shaking Din off but he managed to place one of his charges at the ship, making it explode a moment later. He quickly let go and flew back, watching, like the rest of the group, as the ship crashed. When Din managed to land on his feet, Juno ran to him with the child cooing in her arms as they hugged him.

"That was impressive, Mando. Very impressive." Said Karga as they walked towards each other, Din keeping an arm around Juno's shoulder as she didn't let go. "It looks like your Guild rates have just gone up."

"Any more stormtroopers?" Asked Din.

"I think we cleaned up the town. I'm thinking of staying around just to be sure." Replied Cara and Juno looked at her, confused and surprised.

"You're staying here? Really?" She asked.

"Well, why not." Asked Karga. "Nevarro is a very fine planet. And now that the scum and villainy have been washed away, it's very respectable again."

"As a bounty hunter hive?" Asked Din.

"Some of my favorite people are bounty hunters. And perhaps, this specimen of soldier might consider joining our ranks." He replied.

"Yeah. I've got some clerical concerns regarding my chain code." Said Cara. Din looked down at Juno when he felt his sleeve being pulled and noticed the child holding it, both him and Juno looking up at him.

"And if you would agree to become my enforcer, clerical concerns would be the least of your worries." Said Karga and turned to Din. "But you, my friend, you will be welcome back to the Guild with open arms. So, go off, enjoy yourself. And when you're ready to return, you will have the pick of all quarries."

Din looked at the kids and took the child into his arms, holding him with one hand while having the other wrapped around Juno.

"I'm afraid I have more pressing matters at hand." He said. Cara walked closer and rubbed the child's ear, then caressing Juno's cheek. The child gurgled at her while Juno smiled.

"Take care of these little ones." She said and Din nodded.

"Or maybe, they'll take care of you." Continued Karga. Din nodded again and turned around with the kids, moving away. He handed the child back to Juno before taking her into his arms, activating the jetpack and flying back to his ship.

~

Din placed the last stone on Kuiil's grave before going inside the ship and inside the cockpit. Juno and the child were waiting inside, the child sitting on her thighs. When they heard Din going inside, she quickly wiped off her tears and smiled shakily. As Din passed her, he squeezed her shoulder to comfort her, then going to start the ship. As the ship was powering up, he heard the child chewing on something and turned around. "What do you got there?" He asked and saw the child sucking on his Mythosaur Skull pendant. He gently took it from him to look at it. "I didn't think I'd see this again. Why don't you hang onto that?" He said and handed it back to the child who went back to sucking on it while Din began flying the ship, leaving Nevarro.

After a few hours of flying through space, both kids were sleeping while Din stayed awake, thinking what they were going to do next. He had no idea. His body was still hurting from the fight. He grunted from pain as he leaned back, when he heard some shifting behind him and turned around, noticing Juno's eyes opening. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you." He mumbled.

"You didn't." She said unconvincingly. "So, where are we going now?" She asked.

"I don't know yet." He answered and rubbed his shoulder, trying to ease the pain.

"You need to heal." She said. "And learn how the jetpack works."

"Yeah." He mumbled quietly and nodded.

"Could we maybe...go to Pillio?" She asked. "I want to see my home. Or what remained." She mumbled the last part. Din sighed, his head low, but nodded and turned to the controls, searching for the planet in the system. When he found it, he put in the coordinates.

After another few hours of traveling, they reached a green looking planet. Din has never heard of the planet Pillio so he wasn't expecting it to be covered mostly by water, but he admitted that it was beautiful. The planet looked green from up above and it reminded him of Juno's eyes. "We're here." He told her. She looked outside the window and smiled, a familiar feeling of home burning in her chest. After a while of flying around, looking for a solid ground, Din landed the ship near a town.

After landing, Din turned around and looked at Juno, seeing her still looking out the window before her smile disappeared and she looked down. He got out of his chair and crouched before the girl. "Hey, you okay?" He asked. "If it's too hard for you to be here, we can leave and find some other place."

"No." She shook her head. "Let's go out, I want to see my home."

"Okay." He nodded and stood up, pulling her with him. He then went and put the child into his pod and together, they exited the ship. They walked for a couple of minutes before they reached the town surrounded by the ocean. The town itself wasn't as destroyed as Din expected, a few buildings were fallen down, but it was quiet. No other living soul except for theirs was there.

"This is where the markets used to be." Said Juno as she started explaining some things to Din and pointed to different places. "And all our animals were staying there. And there, all the people used to spend the evenings together, dancing and singing." She had to take a breath, all the memories of what used to be and of what happened came running in her mind.

"I'm sure it was beautiful." Said Din gently as he stepped closer to her and squeezed her shoulder.

"It was." She nodded. "And...and up there is the palace. Come on, I'll show you." She said and pulled him to the large palace above the town. When they arrived, they walked inside and Juno showed them around, the child cooing as he took in the rooms. Finally, they stood outside one of the last two rooms. "This is my bedroom. And at the end of the hallway is my parents bedroom." She explained before slowly opening the door.

Her room was quite smaller than the others. It was a soft green color with portraits of Juno's family and friends on almost every wall, a bed was opposite large windows out of which they could see the ocean. Other furniture stood inside, such as a grand closet and a table with books on it. It was quite cozy and as Din was observing, Juno took the child in her arms and jumped on her bed, sighing. "I missed this."