Chapter Text
Winding up on Jakku was a complete mistake. Din preferred travelling in the outer rim because he knew it well, but with bounty hunters crawling all over it was unsafe for him and the child to stay for long periods of time. They'd been travelling through hyperspace when suddenly the Razor Crest sprung a leak, the stress had finally fractured the main fuel canister.
Abruptly Din was jerked awake as alarms blared the Razor Crest lurched out of hyperspace, five hours before they were supposed to arrive.
According to the star map, they were entering the inner rim and had two choices for landing: the Codian moon or Jakku. The codian moon was small and was unlikely to have somewhere to fix the Crest, while Jakku was a giant scrapheap of scavengers and other unsavoury people.
They could just barely make it to Jakku with the emergency fuel, spending hours at a time drifting with small bursts from the engines to keep them in the right direction. The child spent a lot of time trying to steal the silver ball from the thruster rod, using his sorcerer powers to unscrew and levitate it into his hands. Each time Din would smile under the safety of his helmet at the child’s mischievous giggles before the child would try to give the ball to him.
Din was confused at first as to why the child wanted him to have the metal ball, so he just screwed it back on the control and went back to trying to sleep. A moment later he’d hear the child giggling to himself only to open his eyes to see that once again the metal ball was in outstretched little green hands.
so that’s what he wants, Din thought as he re-screwed the ball.
The game continued until halfway through levitating to the kid, the ball dropped and the little creature’s eye drifted shut.
At first, Din was alarmed that he had used so much of his powers to hurt himself, but when the quiet snores filtered through his helmet he realized the child had just fallen asleep midway through the game.
Picking up the ball from the floor, Din returned it to his rightful place on the rod. Gently, he scooped up the child and deposited him in the little hammock in their shared sleeping quarters.
The child was still asleep when Din awkwardly landed the Razor Crest on the outskirts of the Niima outpost. The Holonet had said there was a starport, but all that greeted Din was a vast scape of sand and dust.
The landing was rough, but he was just thankful that there was solid ground to land on. The crest groaned as it finally touched down and Din let out the breath he’d been holding through the landing process. Now, to gather what credits he had and things worth of value to trade with. There didn’t look to be much work in bounty hunting in the small and isolated outpost.
After gathering what he could, Din retrieved the miraculously still sleeping child from the hammock and carefully tucked him into his satchel before walking out into the boiling heat of Jakku.
He wandered through the only market looking for anything compatible with his ship. Unfortunately, most of the pieces seemed to be from old empire ships, nothing that could easily be popped in and done with. It would take some modification to make imperial parts work but until he found any fuel canisters or something similar he was stuck on this planet until further notice.
He could find nothing in the market, although many rushed to sell him other parts, he had no interest until his fuel situation was fixed enough to travel by hyperspeed again. One merchant suggested visiting a woman called Maisey, one of the better mechanics that worked out of the outpost.
“She don’t do so much of the repairs herself now’days, but her droid does good work for the credits.” the older man said after trying to sell Din on some old gadgets he didn't even recognize.
The droid aspect made Din skeptical, but after reluctantly asking around it seemed like the only people who knew anything about pre-imperial ships and new-republic ships.
Din was unsure what to expect when he walked into the small tent. The lack of building on Jakku was a new experience and he was glad to finally get out of the wind. The tent was large but barren. Din's hope of finding a decent mechanic was dwindling when a stout old woman scuttled out from behind a section of the tent.
“Well I'll be damned, don’t get many of y’all around these parts,” she said as she inspected Din from helmet to boots. “What can I do for you, boy?”
A little taken aback at the ‘boy’ comment Din quickly put himself together before answering. “I need you to repair a busted fuel canister on a pre-empire ship,” he stated. “And no droids. I’ll pay extra”
“Don't go callin’ ‘em a droid; thought you’d have more manners than that,” she said with a frown. “I Don’t got no droids, we do it by the old books here. Bring your ship, ‘round back, Gotta see the damned thing first, not gonna give you a quote until I know just what I’m signin’ up for… if you can even get it off the ground.”
“Might take a while, don’t have any fuel left,” Din admitted. He still had some things he could trade for fuel but to lug it all the way back to his ship was something he had no interest in doing unless absolutely necessary.
“I’ll send the kid with you then, got much younger legs than I do,” she said, laughing. She patted Din on the arm as she hobbled past him.
strang old lady, Din thought to himself as the old woman hollered for ‘the kid.’ meanwhile the child was starting to squirm in the bag, having finally woken up from his post-sorcerer-power nap.
As he was trying to settle the child, Maisey re-entered the main tent. “they're waitin’ for you out front. They’ll take payment after an assessment.”
“Thank you,” Din replied, just glad that he wouldn’t be stuck on this dusty rock much longer.
Outside the tent was indeed someone on a speeder bike, and as Din squinted through the sand he realized it was a droid. crazy old woman said she didn’t have any droids!
He was about to turn back and insist he could find someone else to do the job when the droid turned.
“Hey mister! Maisey said you needed to get back to the landing field,” the droid- no the cyborg yelled at him. Having turned Din could make out that at least part of it was human; their left leg and arm certainly were not. “Are you coming or what?”
Their wore a sleeveless shirt that revealed a prosthetic arm that looked sort of like an L3 model missed with a pit droid. They wore protective goggles that had seen far better days and the rest of their face was covered with a bandana, probably to keep out the sand. The sections of skin din could see were tanned so dark din was sure it wasn’t all from the hot sun on Jakku. They waved din over before tying up their sun bleached dreads.
Swallowing a groan Din reluctantly climbed onto the speeder bike. The cyborg, nothing more than a kid he realized, was frozen in front of him.
“Well, Din prompted. “Are you going to take off?”
“You’re… no way… you’re a Mandalorian,” they gasped, and Din could hear the distortion for a voicebox as they stuttered. He could imagine their wide-eyed and jaw-dropped expression under their goggles and mask- If they had a human mouth that was.
“Yep.”
“Thats- wow- I’m-”
“Look kid, are you going to drive or what?” asked pointedly.
At that, the kid seemed to straighten themself out. “Yes, sorry sir. Hold on please.”
The ride back to the so-called ‘starport’ was quick, unlike the assessment of his ship. The kid was constantly poking around and looking at things that had nothing to do with the busted fuel canister.
The child at this point was fed up with being stuffed in a hot satchel and had been placed in the sand only to whine at the heat, trying to crawl up Din’s leg in an attempt to get away from the irritating feeling of hot sand.
“I know buddy, but there’s nowhere cool on this planet,” Din Said softly, picking up the child to be held in the crook of his arm and safely hidden in the shade of his cloak.
“Don’t have a cooling unit?” the kid, who Din had learned was named Jay, asked as they rounded the star crest, wiping grease off their flesh hand on their shirt.
Din knew his unamused expression was inhibited by his helmet, but his tone of voice wasn’t lost even through the helmet’s distortion. “I do, just don't have the fuel to run it.”
“Ah, well good news! It’s an easy fix. Shouldn't take more than three days. And you can stay at my place; it's modified for the heat and cold. The little guy should be feeling much better.” True to the cyborg’s comment, the child’s ears were flushed and drooping. The heat was probably getting to the baby much faster than himself.
“three days pop in a new canister?” Din scoffed you've got to be kidding
“Yeah, considering the working hours on Jaaku only last from three in the morning to 10 and from 3 to 11. Not to mention scavenging a fuel tank that’ll fit and the imperial to pre-empire modifications… you’re looking at least two to three working days.” Jay explained. Their expression was hidden by their goggles and mask, but their posture and tone of voice showed clear annoyance.
“Long lunch break,” Din commented sharply, sneakily trying to press the child against the slowly warming Beskar in hopes to cool him down.
“I Would rather not die of sunstroke,” Jay countered, equally as cutting. “It’ll only cost you about… an even 250 credits.”
“250? Look here, kid-”
“Look here Mandalorian, Maisey would charge you at least 600 for the same job, but I'm cutting you a deal because I need your help.”
“Need to hire a bounty hunter?” Din asked sarcastically.
“I need- what? No. I need to get off this planet,” came the answer Din was not expecting.
oh no not again
“I am not a taxi service,” he said firmly. Definitely not after the frog Lady incident; he and the child travelled alone from then on.
“Look,” the kid pleaded, “I can pay you-”
“No. fix the ship; I'll pay the 600 credits,” Din said and it was the last they spoke of it for almost three days.
As much as the cyborg annoyed him, they did a good job of fixing up the crest. For 600 credits they fixed the fuel canister as well as a few other things Din had put off since they weren't strictly necessary. The Razor Crest was looking the best it had in a while. It still needed a complete overhaul but at least pieces weren't falling off at the hint of a stiff breeze.
He and the child had stayed with the cyborg while waiting out the repairs due to not having either a cooling or heating system running on the crest. While the days of Jakku were sweltering, the nights were almost worse with their freezing temperatures.
The cyborg had made a home out of an abandoned imperial shuttle and while partially submerged in the sand, it functioned as a good shelter for a single person. With Din and the child, however, it was a tight fit, not to mention the three half-built droids that also took up space.
Being around a half-droid made Din uncomfortable enough, but three lifeless droids set him completely on edge. Jay had rambled a bit about each of their designed functions but Din was uninterested and didn't remember much except they were all non-lethal in their empire days.
It was their last night on Jakku and Din was sure that the whole escape Planetside thing was over... but he should have known better. the kid was ruthlessly stubborn in everything they did, regardless if it was fixing a ship or bargaining at the trading post.
The Mandalorian was halfway through feeding the child his dinner of ration bread when Jay returned with a heavy bag clutched in their hand.
"I know you refused but-"
"No."
"Just hear me out okay! I can pay you in Beskar."
Din choked as he fought down a dismissive laugh. "Yeah right kid, where'd you-"
Din stopped short as the cyborg pulled out a black Mandalorian helmet from the bag. "I need to return it to a Mandalorian since that's the code. I'll trade the armour for safe passage on your ship."
He could easily take the armour from the kid, they were all lean muscle and no core strength. Their mental arm could be a bit of an issue but a bolt through the head would take care of that if it came to it.
Din looked closer at the helmet. it was small, much too small for an adult Mandalorian; a child's then.
"Where do you get this?" He asked.
"I found it."
Liar
"Where'd it come from, kid." He asked sternly, standing to his full height and looming over the cyborg.
"I-I knew him before he died," the kid stuttered. "I didn't want someone to-to take it who didn't know the way."
They were telling the truth as far as Din could tell, even without seeing their eyes.
"What was his name?" He asked, voice softening slightly as he sat down again.
"Asher Rim; we knew each other on Navarro,'' Jay explained, tucking the helmet back into their bag.
The mention of Navarro spiked din's interest. The kid couldn't be any older than 20 years old based on their height and voice. So their friend could have been any range of ages. He remembered the news of a young Mandalorian dying from an explosion. Din hadn't known them personally but the tribe had been devastated at the loss of a youngling. The possibility that he was the same person was small, but Mandalorians were uncommon on Navarro, especially with the restrictions from The Watch.
"I'm… I'm sorry for your loss." din said eventually, looking into jay's reflective goggles.
The cyborg just shook their head. "It was years ago; I can't use the armour regardless. Can you fly me back to Navarro?"
"In exchange for the armour, yes." The Mandalorian replied somewhat reluctantly. "We leave first thing tomorrow. Make sure you're ready to go."