Chapter Text
Awareness slowly came to Din as he regained consciousness, the cacophony of last night's ceremony still ringing in his ears. That could also be the hangover from their private celebration afterward but he was still too groggy to care. sighing, he pulled the blanket up higher around his neck, trying to ignore the headache that was threatening to ruin this moment.
“It’s too early,” Luke groaned into the back of his neck.
He briefly glanced at the chrono on the nightstand, which seemed to counter Luke’s point. “It’s nearly lunchtime, we should get up” he argued, but made no move to follow through.
“We don’t leave for several hours,” Luke grumbled groggily.
“I thought you said you could handle your liquor.”
“It’s been a while, and I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“Don’t pout,” he couldn't help but laugh at how Luke sounded. “Go take a bath, it will make you feel better. I want to eat.”
“Fine…” Luke rolled over onto his back but made no further movement to get up.
“I thought you said you wanted to get an early start on preparations for our honeymoon?”
“That is what I pay Jonal for.” Luke rolled his eyes. “One would think you’d be used to having people do things for you by now.”
“Whatever,” he laughed and got up. His head hurt but not debilitatingly so. Nothing a strong cup of caf and a little fresh air wouldn't fix.
“Come back, I miss you.” Luke reached out using the force to stop him in his tracks.
“Luke,” Din said in the stern voice he reserved for Grogu when he was up to mischief.
“Fine,” Luke sighed dramatically. “You win, but when we are on our honeymoon, we are sleeping till noon every day.”
“Oh yes, because infants are so well known for sleeping till a decent hour.”
“Which is why we should bring the nanny droid.”
“No.” He found himself too often giving in to Luke. He knew he shouldn’t, but couldn't help himself. But the droid wasn’t something he was willing to budge on. “I would rather do it myself. I don’t want any droids near my children.” He could barely stand that they were away for the night with their grandfather, the very idea of them alone with a droid made his skin crawl.
“Don’t you think it’s time you let that go?” Luke uttered quietly like it wasn’t meant for him to hear.
“No, I don't think it is.” He turned back to Luke, crossing his arms.
‘Din, don’t be mad. I didn't mean it that way.”
“Then how did you mean it?” It probably wasn’t the best time to argue. It didn’t seem to be a good omen to get into a fight the day after your wedding.
“I mean isn’t this a new beginning? How do your people say it, see veen?”
“Cin vhetin, a fresh start.” he corrected the pronunciation with a sigh. Luke was right, he supposed. “This is a fresh start, but I don’t want the droid.”
“Alright,” Luke gave in, sensing he wasn’t winning this one. “But they’ll need tutors when they get older to prepare them for school.”
“I think I can manage.” While his education was unconventional, he was fluent in several languages and could calculate hyperspace routes in his head, preparing a child for kindergarten was well within his skill set.
“They’re not even two months old yet,” Luke groaned, rubbing his face. “I think I’m just stressed from all this planning. I apologize for lashing out.”
“No, It’s fine. I know you just worry about them.” He knew it was hard when Luke couldn’t spend all the time he wanted with their babies.
“Thank you for being understanding.” Luke held his arms open for a hug, buried his head in his chest, and laughed weakly. “I think I overdid it last night.”
“You have time before we need to be ready.” He chuckled. “I’ll bring you some caf and some medicine for your head.”
“What’s wrong with my head? I haven't heard complaints before.”
“Luke!”
“Yes dear?”
“You can get your own caf.”
He removed himself from Luke's arms, laughing at the expression on his husband's face.
“Din,” Luke whined, “that's not fair, I couldn’t resist.”
He threw on a clean shirt and walked into the empty living space. Servants had left breakfast spread on the table. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to this: having everything he ever wanted and more. The hurt of his tribe’s rejection was still a fresh and open wound, but over time, maybe he could get over it. Luke was right, they only ever used him and didn’t deserve his loyalty.
The caf machine beeped as it finished brewing a fresh pot. Grabbing himself a cup, he took a plate of bread and fruit with him and sat on the deck as he ate his breakfast…or lunch at this point. He tried to push down the sense of wrongness that welling up inside of him. It was an instinct well honed from years of bounty hunting that had saved him countless times. But there was no danger here. Sitting on a deck under the sun, the gentle lakeside breeze tussling his hair. There was no reason for him to feel so uneasy. Still, his instincts screamed at him to run, but he didn’t know why. Sure it was a new experience to have so much downtime, but that didn't seem enough for such an alarm. It was probably just a baby thing. His emotions had been all over the place since Naak and Padme were born. Yes, he decided that was it.
“Din,” Luke patted up behind him. “Father will be with the children shortly. Something came up unexpectedly but we should still be able to leave on time. If the worst comes to worst, I’ll simply join you there tomorrow morning.”
“What happened? Do you need help?” He had little understanding of Luke’s day-to-day work, but he wondered if any of his past experiences would be useful.
“Just some rebel activity. It seemed like they have used the distraction of the wedding to usurp control of a small world, nothing that a few reinforcements can't fix.'' Luke spoke casually, but his body language was tense.
“And are you the reinforcement?” He asked with concern. Luke had gone into battle a few times since he was here, but it was becoming more and more frequent.
“Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I am preparing to depart if needed.”
He had a feeling Luke was downplaying the urgency of the incident but he didn’t doubt Luke’s ability to handle it. “You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?”
He wasn't stupid enough to believe everything he heard from the telecast, but living here in the heart of the capital made it easy to forget there was still a war going on.
“I will tell you what you need to know.” Luke pulled on his cloak, not at all looking like he was lying hungover in bed half an hour ago.
“Stay safe.” He stood from his deckchair to give Luke a quick kiss. “You promised to give me a week I wouldn't forget. I can’t have you going back on your promise now.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Luke gave him one last kiss. “You have about 15 minutes before Father gets here if you want to have a quick shower.”
“Do you think this skirmish will be resolved quickly?” He stretched as he rose to his feet.
“I don’t know.” Luke looked into the distance. At times like this, it was easy to see just how much his position burdened him as if the weight of the whole galaxy rested on his shoulders.
“Have things been getting worse?” He hadn’t been out and involved with the galaxy in nearly a year. And even before that, he had not paid much attention to what was going on around him that hadn’t pertained to his hunts.
“Things have been…interesting lately, but it’s nothing you need worry about. You know how people are, no matter how much you give them, they’ll always find something to be upset about.” Luke shrugged. “The rebels are nothing more than a nuisance.”
“A nuisance that requires your personal attention?” He knew Luke tried to shield him from the darker sides of his position, but this felt more like a lie to his face.
“Sometimes the fly trap works, other times you must get up and squash the insect yourself. But at the end of the day, it was just a pest.” Luke spoke coldly as they walked through their suite and to the front door.
“But you’ll tell me if things get worse.”
Luke paused as he reached for the panel to open the door. “I hope to have the rebellion situation handled once and for all shortly. I have a plan in the works but it will take time. But if things get worse, remember that the safety of you and our children is my first priority.”
“Just promise you’ll come back to me.”
“Please,” Luke scoffed, “like you could get rid of me.”
If anyone else said it, he would have rolled his eyes at the cockiness. But from Luke, he found it endearing. It was good to feel so wanted.
“Is something wrong?” He walked into the bridge of the Hyperion with the twins’ pods trailing closely behind. Grogu took his favorite position perching on his shoulder. Instead of seeing the blur of hyperspace outside of his transposable, he only saw the still blackness of deep space.
“There seems to be a bug in the hyperdrive,” Jonal reported. “The engineers are working on it, but for the time being we’re traveling sublight. I already commed the nearest star destroyer and they’re sounding out a squad to serve as an escort. They’ll be arriving in about 30 minutes.”
That was odd. Sure the hyperdrive went out often on the Crest, but that was an old subparly maintained ship. On a top-of-the-line bayonet-class cruiser like this, it was unheard of.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” He walked up beside Jonal, looking over at the short-range radar. Nothing.
“You sound like Lord Vader.” Jonal teased. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
Without warning, everything went dark. An alarm began to blare and the emergency lights cast the bridge in a red glow.
“Sir, this way!” Jonal herded him forward into the belly of the ship.
“Let me stay on the bridge. I can help!” He tried to turn back to the bridge but Jonal grabbed him by the elbow.
“You are helping.” The commander pointed to the pods. “You help by keeping them safe.”
“Stay here!” Jonal opened an office near the escape pods. “It’s reinforced. Nothing short of the emperor's lightsaber is getting through that door.”
“Sir, we’ve been boarded!” A trooper barreled around the corner at a breakneck speed. “It’s the rebels.”
It looked like Jonal wanted to swear but held his tongue. “That should be impossible.” He growled.
“You have a leak.” He moved the pods into the safe room and Grogu hopped down from his perch, looking just as ready to fight as he was.
“It’ll have to wait until I can do an investigation.” Jonal raised his blaster towards the sound of battle.
“How else would the rebels know our location? And the hyperdrive…” He started to think aloud, like when he used to be alone on his ship where no one else was listening. “I’m positive your engineers will find out that it was sabotage.”
“Now isn’t the time, sir! Reinforcements should be here shortly, but right now my priority is your safety, not speculating about a potential mole.”
Jonal took a step back. “Lock the door, and if I don’t come back in ten minutes, you go to the escape pod.” He pointed at a narrow door against the back wall. “Through there is an access tunnel that leads directly to one large enough for you and the kids.”
He doesn't like any of this. He wanted to fight, to defend his children, to defend the troopers he’d come to know. He had always known his relationship to Luke would paint a target on his back, but it had been barely a day since they were married. How were there already people gunning for his head? Did they hope to hold him or their children for ransom? It would make sense. How else would one get power over the most powerful man in the galaxy?
“I can fight.” He tried again, more desperately. “Jonal, let me help you!”
“I know you can, sir,” Jonal spoke sternly leaving no room for argument. “That is why you're in charge of protecting our most valuable assets.”
More blaster fire rang from down the hall, closer this time. Jonal stepped in front of the door shielding the opening with his body. “Shut the door!” He all but growled.
“Din!” A familiar voice shouted from down the hall. “You kriffing tin can, where are you?”
“Cara?” He hadn’t seen her since Luke rescued them from the dark troopers on Gideon’s Lit-cruiser. He had almost forgotten her voice. “Cara! Is that you?”
He couldn’t hold back his smile when she rounded the corner, her squad close behind. He could just talk to her and figure out what was going on, so no one has to get hurt.
“Din!” She smiled warmly. “We’re here to rescue you.”
“Rescue me?” Now he was confused.
“From what the Emperor...the guy that’s been holding you prisoner.” She said slowly. “Look, it's not uncommon to develop feelings for your captor, you just need time away.”
“He’s not going anywhere,” Jonal said, interrupting their reunion.
More stormtroopers came down the hallway, surrounding Cara and her team.
“Din, the pod, now!”
“No wait!” Cara pleaded. “Let me get you out of here, please! You and the kids.”
“Stand down!” Jonal barked. “You're outnumbered and we have reinforcements on the way.”
“No, you don’t,” Cara smirked. “We intercepted your transmission.”
“The distress beacon was sent out the second you boarded.”
She raised her weapon. “Well, then we better get moving.”
“Cara, wait.” He tried to push past Jonal but the larger man wouldn’t budge.
“Cara, listen to me. Look at me! I am perfectly fine. I want to be here. Just go before more people come!”
“Sir, she attacked the shuttle of the Emperor’s family. She’s not going anywhere.”
“Din, they’re imps!”
“They’re not like… It’s complicated, but it’s not what you think.”
“It’s not?” She scoffed. “Alderaan is an asteroid belt, and have you forgotten what they did to Mandalore?”
“Luke didn’t do those things. He was still undercover in the rebellion.”
“Undercover?” She asked incredulously. “I didn’t take you for a fool, Mando.”
“Sir, please, think about your children. Get out of here!”
Years of hunting, and this was the most impossible situation he had ever been in. Both Cara and Jonal were his friends and he couldn’t leave them alone to kill each other. But his children were defenseless, and he needed to protect them from crossfire.
“I’ll leave, but promise you won’t hurt her” He felt a little guilty to put Jonal in such a difficult place, but he had no other choice. “That is an order.”
“Din, stop.” Cara took a step forward.
Jonal pushed him further into the room. “Order received, now lock the door.”
This time he complied.
Grogu looked up at him curiously as soon as the door shut.
“Everything will be okay.” He scooped him up and walked over to the twins' pods to check on them.
Padme was still fast asleep, completely oblivious to the chaos around them. Naak however was awake and fussy. Vader had warned him that Naak would continue to be agitated by the emotions of others until he was able to shield for himself. His distress only increased as a battle broke out outside.
“Na’ika, it’s okay.” He wasn’t able to shield Naak like Vader or Luke could, but perhaps there was something else he could do.
He loosened the straps on his chest plate before picking Naak up and tucking him inside against his chest. If the beskar could shield himself from affecting Naak, maybe it could also shield Naak from the world around him.
Soon Naak’s cries settled into quite discontentment. Good, that was at least one thing he now had under control. The fight was still going on, but knowing Jonal, he would do everything to keep Cara alive. An order means everything to the commander. Din used to find it a bit funny, but now he couldn’t be more grateful.
He urged Grogu into Padme’s pod. “Alright kids, time to go.”
Before he could enter the passageway to the escape pods, he heard a familiar hum from lightsabers.
“Luke,” he smiled. But his relief quickly turned to dread as realization washed over. Luke wasn’t the type to show mercy to those who attacked his family, and unlike Jonal, Luke wouldn’t take an order from anybody.
Without hesitation, he made his way back across the room to the door. “Luke, stop!” The door slid open just in time for him to see Luke choking Cara.
“Stay back, Din. You’re safe now.” Luke made no move to lower Cara back to the ground.
“Luke, she’s my friend. Let her go! This was all a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Luke snarled, voice full of barely contained rage. “How is it a misunderstanding to attack the family of the Emperor?”
“She thought I was in danger. Please, put her down!”
“Jonal, please escort Din and the children to my ship. I'll be there shortly.”
“This way,” Jonal attempted to pull him away.
“No.” he pushed Jonal off harshly, feeling a bit bad about it.
“Luke, I’m not letting you kill her.” He didn’t often demand things from Luke, but he wasn’t about to let Luke do this. He would fight Luke himself if he had to.
“Fine, but I need to ask her a few questions first.” Luke let go of his grasp, and Cara immediately fell back to the ground, choking for air.
“Alright, but you can’t hurt her.”
“I’ll do what I must.” Luke looked back at him smiling softly. “I’ll join you soon.”
Luke boarded his elite tie less than ten minutes later. The red splatter of blood across his face gave him a deranged look.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt her!”
“No, I said I wouldn’t kill her, and I never made any promises about her crew. She’s safely back in her ship, heading back to whatever hole she crawled out of.”
“Her crew, you killed all of them?” He felt speechless like he was the one being lifted by the throat now. The way Luke spoke of killing so casually was almost unrecognizable. “They were just following her orders, they didn’t deserve…”
“Just following orders?” Luke raised an eyebrow. “Since when has that been an excuse?”
“Luke, they didn’t have to die.”
“What about your guards? Eight of them are dead, did they have to die? They attacked my family! If it gets out that I let the people responsible for this go, it will only invite more to try.”
He didn't like it, it felt wrong. But at the moment he couldn’t refute the logic. “Maybe we should just go home.” He looked down at Naak who was still contently sitting under his chest plate. “I wouldn’t have brought them away from the palace if I knew they would be in danger.”
“I’m afraid no matter where they go, they’ll always be in some element of danger. One day one of them will be my heir.” Luke picked up Padme and rocked her lovingly. The juxtaposition between the blood across his face and the gentle way he held their daughter was eerie.
“I know.”
“I know this hasn’t been the best start to our honeymoon, but let’s put this behind us. Don’t let the rebels ruin our time.”
“I think you have a mole in the palace.” It was the only logical conclusion.
“I agree,” Luke pursed his lips into a tight grimace. “Your friend wasn’t of much use to provide any clues into who it might be. But she did let a code name slip up.”
“What is it?” He had tracked people down with less information than that.
“Fulcrum.”