PART THIRTY-SIX

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"Grogu."

The child looked at Mando from his seat, chewing on the ball.

"Grogu? Give me the ball."

"Come on, give it to him," Fwega added, peeling a slice of burrberri and tossing it into her mouth. She nodded at the child, who looked at her curiously.

Mando snatched the ball from him while he was distracted.

"Okay, here we go," he sighed, holding the ball so Grogu could see it clearly. "You can have it, just like before. Come on, Grogu. Take it, come on."

The child closed its eyes and the ball flew back into his hands.

"Dank Farrik."

"Hey!" Fwega glared at Mando playfully, leaning down to consol the child.

"No, I'm not mad you at you, Grogu. You did good. I just... When the nice lady said you had training..." He trailed off again. "You're special, kid."

The child cooed at him and Fwega grinned.

"We're here, Tython. We're going to find you a Jedi and they'll take real good care of you."

Fwega sombered, sitting back up in her seat. She handed Grogu a slice of burrberri.

"But you have to promise to go with them if they want you to. Yeah? Plus, I can't train you. You're too powerful. Don't you want to learn more of the Jedi stuff?"

The child cooed, but he kept his attention at his controls.

"I agreed to take you back to your own kind, so that's what I need to do. You understand, right?"

"He does." Fwega sucked the juice from her fingers, looking up at Mando through her lashes. He turned back to the control panel quickly, rolling his eyes.

"I guess that's the magic rock we're supposed to be going to."

Fwega looked over his shoulder at the top of the mountain, squinting to try to find where exactly the rock was.

"Hey!" Mando turned his seat, pointing to the chair. "You better buckle up. We can't land on top so it's going to be a bit of a walk."

Fwega rolled her eyes and complied. "We could always jetpack up there."

"With you and the child? I dunno..."

Fwega looked at Grogu. "You wanna go on the jetpack? Yeah?" The child looked back up at her, excited.

"Oh, that's how you wanna play, huh?" Mando jerked the ship to the side, causing them to almost fall out of the seat had they not had their harnesses on.

"Din!" Fwega squealed, laughing with the child as it whooped.

"Alright, alright." He set the ship down a ways away on the flatter ground. They stumbled out of the ship, Fwega giggling as Grogu giggled with her. Mando watched, a warm feeling in his chest.

"Oh, alright, fine." He scooped them up and jetpacked off, smiling at Fwega's surprised yell and the child's whooping.

They touched down on the flat outcropping, looking around. Mando set the child on the rock in the middle of the clearing, expectant.

"Well? Does this look Jedi to you?"

Fwega closed her eyes, listening to the earth hum with energy. She imagined it flowing up, up through her fingertips into into her body, filling her with warm, white light.

"Yeah, this is it." Fwega watched the child raise his hand, trying to touch a butterfly.

"There's- is there a control or something? Maybe you don't see them, maybe they see you..." He searched along the base for some sort of lever or switch.

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