"I wasn't always like this...."
Dyna Djarin is the last of the Mandalorians. Having abandoned the life that brought her father to his end when she was young, Dyna had taken off her Beskar armor and never put the helmet back on.
Until, the best pilot...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ten Years Earlier:
A very well known fact about my people was that those of us who were old enough to fight, became bounty hunters. Another fact about said bounty hunters, is that we are never to remove our helmets in public.
The only people who have seen my father's actual face are myself, my mother (force rest her soul), my adopted brother, and my godmother (dad's closest confidant since long before I was born).
My father frequently removes his helmet when he's home. The reason for this being, that when I was born my mother refused to let him near me unless "that damned bucket was off of his head". She told him that a child needs to see the face of its father and not just "that ridiculous fucking helmet".
Maker bless Traya Djarin. Her sassy and stubborn personality lives on through me.
You can imagine how amused, yet irritated she was when my first phrase was backwards, due to my having spent so much time with Grogu.
My older brother Grogu, although only looking about five or six is exactly eighty-four years old.
Dad adopted Grogu about ten years before I was born. We still don't know what species our beloved green mini-goblin is, but he's open to all guesses and light-hearted jokes.
Whenever Grogu pisses dad off, my father always threatens to turn him in for another bounty. A story that mom refused to let dad tell me when I was younger, but Aunt Cara told me anyway when I was nine.
Which was only a year before my mother passed away, taking my new baby brother with her.
We were all pretty devastated, even now my father forbids us to talk about either of them.
That's one of the reasons why I regret the argument that ensued that fateful night. What I'd said to him before he left to pick up another bounty was cruel and I'd have given anything to take it back.
"You're such a hypocrite! You let Grogu do solo jobs, but the minute I ask it's 'too dangerous'!"
"Dyna, Grogu is force sensitive and has been bounty hunting with me for two decades. He has far more experience in the field, you're still in training." Dad sighed, trying to calm my anger. However, my sixteen year old mind was too furious to see reason.
"I can protect myself, Aunt Cara has been training me when you're gone! I'm not a child anymore!" I yelled, too frustrated to understand the severe irony in what I just said.
"Dyna, kid, you're sixteen. You are most definitely still a child." The previously mentioned woman spoke up from her heat at the table, failing to hide an amused smirk as she said. "Calm down, hon."
I rolled my eyes and let out a groan of frustration, all sense and sensitivity going out the window. "I hate you! I wish you'd died instead of mom! She would have let me go!"
Without processing the cruelty of my words, I stormed off into my room to punch something like the nightmare drama queen from hell that I was.
Little did I know that soon my words would come true and that would be the last time I would see my father alive again.
Two days later, Cara and Grogu returned home with solemn faces. My godmother carrying a large clanking bag on her shoulders.
"Where's Dad?" I asked, the grin that had adorned my face when I'd come to greet them, quickly fell from my lips.
"Dyna, Honey—." Aunt Cara started, her voice stiff and raw probably from yelling a lot.
Realization filled my mind and tears filled my eyes as they landed on the gloved hand that had limply fallen from the bag.
"No." I choked, my heart wrenching as tears fell down my cheeks.
"Dyna..." Grogu began in a sad, yet cautionary tone, before I cut him off sharply.
"No!" I hissed, denial hitting me hard. "He's not gone."
"This is some kind of sick fucking joke and he's probably just fixing up the Crest." I continued and pushed roughly passed my brother, who had tried to stop me, and made my way towards the familiar ship.
"Dad! Dad!" I called as I walked into the Razor Crest, ignoring the worried shouts from my loved ones. "Dad, come on out! Seriously, this isn't funny!"
"It's quite fucked up actually." I finished, as I entered the final non-searched area of the ship.
My voice and heart broke at the sight of the empty cockpit.
"I'm so sorry, Dyna. We tried to save him, but he was already dead by the time we got there." My godmother told me softly, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Everything we could, we did." Kido said quietly, his own voice shaking and he comfortingly reached out and held my hand.
As my brother spoke, I kept my back to them and my eyes squeezed shut. Unable to hold it in anymore, heart wrenching sobs escaped my lips and I wrapped my arms around Kido's shoulders in a hug.
Cara's arms enveloped the two of us, despite her not being much of a hugger, and held the two of us together as we broke down.
Death had taken so much from me, so in order to preserve what was left of my heart, I turned it to stone.
