THE ARC OF SKYWALKER | a star wars story✔️

8 | breaking attachments

—"THE TARGET WAS A CHILD?"

Din watched the woman as she got angry, taking a few steps back to avoid any violent lashing-out.

"I thought you said he was fifty years old!"

"That's what I was told, Asa! I didn't think I'd retrieve a child!" He snapped back at her, towering over the shorter woman. She got in his face, her teeth bared as she continued to fight with him and jabbed her finger into his armored chest.

"Oh, really?! You didn't think to ask questions about him or—"

"The Guild code doesn't allow questions. You do the job, get the payment, then move on with life!"

Asa scoffed at him and crossed her arms, not believing what he said. Din glanced to the child who watched the two fight. The child stared at her curiously then glanced to the two lightsabers hanging from her belt. He whimpered from fear since Asa's eyes flickered between yellow and onyx.

"You can't hand him over." Asa said, her voice sounding as if she was pleading with him. It was almost shocking to hear her sound like that since all she's done is snap at him or use her sorcery to make his life harder.

"Why the hell not? It's not like you care."

"I am many things, Mando, but being harsh and cold toward an innocent child is not one of them."

"You've admitted to destroying families and killing innocents before. I highly doubt your statement." Din said with the shake of his head.

Asa looked away from him and gazed at the child, her features soft and a warmth settled in her dark eyes. For a moment, Din felt pity pricking at his mind. As he watched the woman kneel down and extended her hand hesitantly toward the child, he wondered if the person he was seeing was the same one he brought off Dagobah.

"What is it with you and this child?" He asked after a moment's silence. The child hesitantly waddled over to her, his ears flattened a little to his head and his small hand reached out to grab her finger.

Asa didn't look up at him as she let the child grab her finger. He cooed curiously and began to babble as she gently rested her thumb on top of his small hand. Din couldn't believe what he saw as he watched Asa smile. It wasn't a sarcastic or sadistic one like the other times she spoke to him. This smile...it was a genuine, calming smile, and he couldn't help but smile with her.

The moment lasted only for a few seconds. Her smile turned to a saddened expression as she let of the child's hand and stood, crossing her arms over her chest. Din watched her, awaiting her response.

"I don't want this child to follow the same path as me." She replied and looked at him, a look of regret flitting across her features.

Din stared at her, wondering what she could mean by that. Asa shook her head as she took her long hair out of her bun. She gazed sympathetically at the child as he spoke again.

"What?"

Silence met him as she stared at the child who listened to her as well. Din picked him up and put him in his pod, giving up on questioning the woman in front of him.

"I didn't...choose to be an apprentice to Vader." Her voice was pained, regretful, angry. She also sounded unsure of what to say. "I was taken from my family after my mother died giving birth to my brother and sister."

Din narrowed his eyes at her, almost not believing what she said but he asked another question anyway.

"Of course you could choose. You were older...were you not?" He said with slight hesitance. He could tell she wasn't comfortable sharing her personal information but she continued to speak.

Asa shook her head, her eyes trained on him. "No, I was not, Mandalorian."

"How old then?"

She hesitated. "I was only four years old."

His body tensed when he heard her words. She was that young?! He assumed she was an older girl, maybe nine or ten! Hell, maybe even twelve! But three years old?

Now it made sense of why she was so willing to accept the hand dealt to her. She didn't know any better. She didn't even know who was good or evil.

Yet he wondered why she continued to live in the Dark. Asa wasn't caring or kind—save for the unbelievable sight he witnessed with the child—or loving. She tried killing him more times than he tried to kill her and let's not venture into the major anger issues the woman had. Asa didn't care about him or anyone else. Hell, Din wasn't sure if she was even capable of feeling compassion.

But when he remembered seeing her interacting so tenderly and kindly toward the child only moments ago, he began to question if she really was all darkness beneath the harsh exterior she projected.

Asa shook her head, laughing bitterly as she picked at the dried blood on her wrists.

"I endured so much, but have you ever felt someone use the Force to break your mind into pieces all because they could? You feel them erase memories from your past because they feared they'd lose their greatest weapon?"

He remained silent, listening to her as she continued to speak. Anger radiated off of her but she kept herself level for the sake of not scaring the child.

"I wouldn't wish that upon anyone." She muttered, her eyes downcast. "Ever. I can't let that child be handed over to the Empire to follow the same fate as I did. Who knows what they'll do if he's somehow a Force-Sensitive."

She grabbed his armored forearms, a desperate look in her eyes as she squeezed tightly. Din was shocked by her display of vulnerability since had never seen anything other than anger or hate from her.

"Please, Mandalorian." She pleaded. "They'll kill him if you hand him over."

Din stared back at her, his lips parted to say something but nothing came out. For a moment, his paranoia invaded his thought, screaming at him that she was being manipulative and making him feel guilty for handing over a child. He considered these thoughts, but he could sense pity surfacing.

Din began to pity her, and he hated the feeling that made his stomach turn as she held onto him to convince him not to hand over the kid.

No, I can't. No attachments. No getting manipulated.

Pushing her hands off of him, he backed away to stand beside the child's pod and said the words he knew would break any trust she put in him.

"I fail to see how that's my problem."

Din walked away from Asa, ignoring her shocked and horrified expression of what he just said. He closed the Child's pod and began to head back to his ship. He heard Asa storm up from behind to follow, her anger radiating off of her like the heat of the sun.

He was beginning to get attached to her. Din didn't like it.

Unknown to him, it was only a matter of time before he got attached to the Child.

~*~

*EDITED AND REWRITTEN*