"I was going to kill them," Palpatine mocks, flipping away as Yoda leaps at him, green laser sword blazing. "I was going to throw their bodies at your feet, so you would realize how big of a mistake you've made."
A furious anger burns to life inside of Din when he realizes what Palpatine is saying, when it registers what the dar'jetii was planning to do. "You won't touch them," he growls. His foundlings, his ade, his aliit. Palpatine won't hurt them. He won't. Din won't let him.
"They're powerful," Palpatine says gleefully, batting aside the Jetiis' blades like they're nothing, though he keeps on moving, not staying in the same place for long. "I'll keep them."
Din is this close to launching his whistling birds at Palpatine. He only doesn't because it would probably hurt the Jetii as well. "You won't," he snaps again, bringing up the Darksaber to block Palpatine when he lunges towards him. Sidious is a better duelist than Ahsoka, than Moff Gideon, and Din knows that he's no match for him on his own. One red blade hits his pauldron, falling off harmlessly while the other crackles against the Darksaber. They exchange a few rapid blows, Palpatine using one hand to fend off the Jetii. An invisible force throws Depa backwards, but she lands on her feet some distance away.
"I wonder how the younger would react if I killed you," Palpatine mocks.
Din knows, by now, that Palpatine is only trying to throw him off-balance, trying to make him lash out in anger, but that alone isn't enough to let him remain calm. Grogu has lost enough. Ahsoka had said she feared what might happen to him if he was trained, because of his attachment to Din, and Din doesn't really understand how Jetii magic works, but he knows that the kid would never recover. It's not – he can't and won't let that happen.
Palpatine turns to block Depa, throwing in a sudden, surprise move, stabbing her in the side. She stumbles back, collapsing, injured but alive, though Din doesn't know for how long. Palpatine spins again, far faster than Din can react, but the red laser sword only hits his chestplate. Din swipes upwards at the dar'jetii's hand, and he jerks his hand out of the way. Their blades cross, and Din, still filled with a silent, burning fury, kicks him… in a certain place.
He probably feels way too smug when Palpatine stumbles back with a grunt, nearly impaling himself on Dooku's laser sword. The violet blade grazes Palpatine's shoulder, and though it obviously injures him, it doesn't really slow him down much. Everyone is slowing down as they begin to become a bit worn out, Palpatine most noticeably, because he's fending off so many attacks. He catapults himself over everyone, raising his hands towards the brush, and with a jolt of horror, Din knows what he's about to do. He dives in the way, in front of where Anakin is hiding, just as Palpatine unleashes lightning.
Din's been electrocuted before, but nothing like this. The pain is sharper, more intense than anything he's ever felt. It feels like he's being burned from the inside out, but he clenches his jaw, refusing to scream and refusing to move. The assault lets up suddenly, and Din forces himself to raise his head – he doesn't even remember falling – to see Dooku standing in front of him, blocking the assault with his laser sword, protecting him.
He feels drained suddenly, uncontrollable tremors running through his body, even though he tries to fight them off and stand. If he's going to die, he's going to die fighting on his feet, not on the ground. "Buir," he hears Anakin whisper, sounding horrified and panicked all at once.
"Stay there," Din replies, pushing himself up onto his knees, despite the trembling in his body. He glances back, briefly, to see Anakin staring at him from behind the brush. It doesn't matter if Palpatine knows where the boy is. At least he'll be safer there. He inhales slowly, shakily, willing away the pain as he tries to focus on the battle at hand.
"I'll protect him." Obi-Wan is standing there, expression somewhat strained from the pain of his injury, but he's resolute, laser sword ignited and positioned defensively in front of his body. "You don't need to stay."
Din hadn't realized he'd been planning to until that moment, but he stands, nodding his thanks to Obi-Wan, and closing his eyes for a few long seconds as he recollects himself. Being electrocuted by dar'jetii magic hurts. He picks up the Darksaber, turning to look at the garden. It's in shambles now, much of it destroyed, scorch marks all over – evidence of the massive fight which has, and is, occurring here.
He doesn't know what happened while he was incapacitated, but Dooku is slowly standing up a distance from where Palpatine is standing over Windu, swinging his twin red blades down for the kill. Yoda raises his hand, shoving the dar'jetii sideways, but not before one laser sword slices through Windu's arm near the shoulder, severing it. Din winces in sympathy for him, but it could have been worse. That could have been Windu's head.
Din and Yoda leap at him from opposite directions, and Palpatine backflips, blocking both of the blades as lightning crackles from his fingers. Din has no desire to be struck by it again, so he ducks back to avoid it. Yoda catches the electricity somehow in his hands, and Din slowly takes a couple steps back, momentarily unsure what to do. Then, he draws his blaster, firing a few times in succession at the dar'jetii. Palpatine shoves his hands, hurling Yoda – and the lightning – backwards, slamming him into one of the walls surrounding the garden before shooting another blast of electricity at Din as one blaster bolt hits his arm.
Din goes down, nearly blacking out at this second attack. When he manages to shake it off, his attempts at standing are halted by two red laser swords crossing at his neck. He freezes. One wrong move, and he knows Palpatine will behead him. His beskar'gam will protect him from laser swords where he has it, and it doesn't cover every inch of his body. He tilts his head back defiantly, meeting Sidious' yellow eyes. Behind the dar'jetii, he can see Yoda and Dooku, both poised to attack, but unwilling to do so, knowing that Palpatine would kill Din before they could intervene.
"You knew. Somehow, you knew. How did you know?" Palpatine demands, something cold and icy pressing up against Din's mind.
Din heard rumors that such things were possible, but he didn't believe it. This is worse than when Qui-Gon tries to force his will on Din to make him agree to the bargain. This is – this is Sidious trying to rip the information from him. He won't yield though. He won't betray anything. The presence presses harder, more demandingly, and Din struggles against it, even if he's beginning to fear that it will be in vain. He's breathing raggedly now; trying to prevent Palpatine from using his dar'jetii magic to get into his mind is hard.
"Interesting," hums Sidious with a wicked grin. "Time travel. How… unexpected."
Din hardly dares to breathe for a moment. He saw. He figured it out. All he can do is clench his fists and wonder how he can get out of this alive. "Tell me, Din Djarin," Palpatine continues, and Din's breathing hitches, because he doesn't share his name with people. He hated it more than he can ever put into words when Moff Gideon gave out his name in front of Cara and Greef Karga. This is worse for some reason, and it makes his skin crawl. It's wrong.
"Did you think you could fool me?" Sidious mocks. "Did you think you could defeat me? You? A lone Mandalorian warrior, when the Jedi have blinded themselves to me for so long?"
I'm not alone, Din thinks, but he doesn't say it, straightening even more, and raising his head with pride and defiance. "Demagolka," he spits. "Dar'jetii. You tried to hurt ner ade, ner aliit. They will destroy you." If you kill me, he doesn't add. He doesn't need to add it. If Din dies, Yoda and Dooku will kill Palpatine, and if they don't…
His heart breaks a little for Anakin and Grogu. This shouldn't happen, not like this, and he fears for what might happen to them. Both of his foundlings are still adjusting and healing, and they're extremely… clingy to him. He doesn't mind it; on the contrary, he kind of likes it. He likes seeing how much they adore – even worship – him. Even if he doesn't know how to take care of a child properly, he's doing his best, and he must be doing something right, for all that the two care for him.
Palpatine cackles at that. "They will try," he agrees, and Din stiffens, sensing his intent.
"No!" screams Anakin, and an invisible force throws Palpatine backwards so fast and so hard that he crashes into the garden wall, slumping limply to the ground. Din doesn't waste a second, reaching for his blaster and shooting the dar'jetii twice in the head before stalking over and plunging the Darksaber into his chest, just to be sure he's really dead.
Din stands there, breathing heavily and staring down at the body as it finally begins to sink in that it's really over. Palpatine is dead. Emperor Palpatine is dead, and Din killed him. Huh. Imagine that. He hears sound and turns, instinctively extinguishing the Darksaber when he sees Anakin barrelling towards him. Anakin slams into him, wrapping his arms around him tightly and pressing his face into Din's beskar'gam. If Anakin was properly healthy, not small and undernourished, the impact might have forced him back a step or two.
Din holds him close, stroking a hand through his hair to soothe him. "I'm okay, An'ika. I'm okay," he promises. After a moment, he pulls back. "Let's go inside," he suggests, glancing around at the fallen Jetii. There isn't much he can do to help them, and besides, he needs to be with his aliit right now. Their quarters have bacta which he can use for his injuries, and if he really needs anything more – he won't; he's a warrior, and he's dealt with worse with fewer resources – he can go to the Theed Medical Center which isn't far from the Palace. Anakin and Shmi went there in the morning two days ago to have their slave chips removed.
"Grateful for your help we are," Yoda declares.
Din looks back and nods to him before leading Anakin from the garden and leaving the Jetii to tend to their own. He suspects that it will be a while before many of the survivors are healed based on their injuries. Maybe he'll get an update on their condition later, but for now, he has to focus on his aliit.
As they walk through the Palace halls, Anakin tells him what happened. "He came to our apartment, and Grogu hid under the couch. Mom tried to stop him, so he threw her into a wall and dragged me out. I slowed him down, trying to get away from him. Grogu jumped him – literally – and he ended up throwing me out the window. I think Grogu's probably still there."
Din winces internally at that, because it'll mean that the kid saw everything, not that he's really surprised. There was a reason why he told Shmi to keep Anakin and Grogu in her sight at all times. He worried that Anakin, fearing his vision would come about, would try to do something. Or even Grogu, for that matter. And perhaps it did nearly happen, if Anakin hadn't somehow used his Jetii magic to push Palpatine backwards.
"I didn't know you could use your magic like that," he says finally as they walk down the hall towards the window from which Palpatine – and Anakin – was thrown.
"Nor did I," Anakin admits, "Not exactly. I've always known I could do more than what I was doing, but I've… suppressed it, I guess, since it would have been dangerous."
Not that Din is surprised, because a slave using Jetii magic would get them a lot of unnecessary and unwanted attention in a very bad way. "I think you should learn more," he tells Anakin. "It could be useful to you, like it was earlier."
"I know," Anakin agrees quietly, a myriad of emotions flickering across his face.
Din says nothing more when they stop in front of the broken window. Grogu is sitting in the corner of the windowsill, and the moment Din appears, he leaps into his arms, clinging to him as tightly as he can given his small size. "Hey, ad'ika, are you okay?" he asks, holding onto him. "You shouldn't have seen all of that, but it's alright now. You're safe. We're safe. All of us."
Grogu coos softly, and Din gets the strong impression that the kid is rather shaken by the battle, so he does his best to avoid everyone and gets his foundlings back to their quarters as quickly as he can. Shmi is on the couch, seeming rather disoriented – and fearful – and her expression shifts into visible relief when Din appears with Anakin and Grogu.
"You're alright," she breathes, hurrying over and pulling Anakin into a tight hug. "I was so worried, but I didn't know how to find any of you. Is he…?"
"He's dead," Din assures her firmly. "He can't hurt any of you." Which is only partially true, because the memories – the memories will continue to haunt all of them. His head is pulsing with a pain that he's trying to ignore, a pain from when Palpatine callously ripped out the information that he wanted. He shouldn't have been able to do that, but he was somehow. It scares him because he's not – he doesn't have Jetii magic. He doesn't know how to protect himself from it. No wonder the Mandalorians of old have considered Jetii to be their enemies. They have a power which no one can understand or combat.
Grogu squirms around, reaching up to press his hand on Din's kute. Almost immediately, Din can feel his injuries healing and fading away. Grimacing, he gently pulls Grogu away. "You don't need to do that, kid," he tells him gently. "I'll be alright."
The kid whines a bit at that, but Din doesn't budge. Maybe some other time he might have conceded, especially with Grogu giving him such a pleading look, but right now, after having fought a dar'jetii and with those magic powers having been used on him… not so much.
"Can you stay with Shmi for a little while?" he asks, stroking Grogu's head. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here." Saying aloud that he'll be putting bacta on his injuries seems… weird for some reason.
Grogu pouts and shakes his head, obviously unwilling to let Din out of his sight, so he sighs, looking up at Shmi for help. "Come," she says encouragingly, invitingly, holding out a hand to Grogu. "How about you and Ani tell me what happened?"
Din doesn't think it'll actually work, but finally, Grogu relinquishes his death grip on Din, allowing him to pass the kid to Shmi. "I'll be right back," he promises all of them before disappearing to the 'fresher.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
It's late afternoon, a couple hours after the fight, when Dooku shows up. Of all the people who Din thought might come to their door, Dooku was lowest on the list, but still, Din lets him in.
"How are the Jetii?" he asks, partially out of politeness and partially out of a genuine desire to know their wellbeing. After all, they helped him – more like vice versa – defeat Sidious.
"As you saw, Masters Mundi and Koth have become one with the Force," Dooku answers, hands clasped behind his back. He looks very much like a nobleman now. Presumably, that means that they're dead, which Din already knew. "Qui-Gon has a concussion, and Obi-Wan's burn is relatively minor. They'll be back on their feet by tomorrow. Master Windu will be fitted with a prosthetic arm, but it could have been worse. Master Gallia suffered lightsaber injuries and a few minor, broken bones. Master Billaba went into surgery, but the lightsaber didn't damage anything of major importance, so she will recover in time. Master Unduli is in a coma, and we do not know right now if she will awaken."
Din bows his head. "I am sorry to hear that." It seems like a polite response.
"There will be a funeral for Masters Mundi and Koth tonight," Dooku informs him. "You and Naboo are, of course, invited to attend."
"But that's not why you're here," Din replies knowingly.
Dooku dips his head in agreement. "No," he agrees, pausing. "I spoke with Qui-Gon about Anakin." He glances at Anakin, something akin to fascination in his dark brown eyes.
Din stiffens. "What about him?"
"He is powerful," the Count answers candidly. "Qui-Gon believes him to be the Chosen One, and he told me that the Council refused to accept him for training. Understandable, but unfortunate, nevertheless. I would like to extend an offer to train him myself."
"You're a dar'jetii," Din points out warily.
One corner of Dooku's mouth curls upwards, though there's no amusement in it. "I am," he concurs. "It's not as though Jedi are the only ones who can use the Force. The Jedi do not understand the Force; they do not embrace it fully. I do. I can teach Anakin to do the same."
"It's not… dangerous?" Din queries. "It won't hurt him?"
Something dark passes across Dooku's face. "Anyone with the Force can be dangerous. Learning to control it is less dangerous than leaving talents, like his, untamed."
That is not what Ahsoka told him. She suggested it would be better to let Grogu's abilities fade than train him, because of his attachment to Din. Was she wrong? Luke didn't seem to agree with her, so maybe it was simply her opinion. Or maybe, her reasons for refusing to train Grogu were more… personal. Din doesn't know; he'll never know, now. It probably doesn't matter anyways because this is a different time period altogether.
"What of the Jetii? Won't they take action if you train him when they've explicitly refused?" Din thinks it's a rather justifiable fear.
Dooku shakes his head. "I imagine they will want to observe him, to make sure that he won't 'turn evil,' but they won't actually hurt him or me, unless we prove ourselves a threat. I spoke with Master Yoda already. Given that I helped the Order defeat Sidious, he is willing to let me walk free, even if I use the Dark Side."
Grogu whimpers softly at that, though he doesn't actually seem scared, just uneasy, but that's somewhat normal given what just happened. "I want to do it, Buir," Anakin says quietly before Din can reply to Dooku. "I want to learn how to use Jetii magic."
The Count visibly stops himself from wincing. "The Force, young one," he corrects.
Din hides a flare of amusement. "Okay," he agrees. "If that's what you want, An'ika, then that's what we can do."
Dooku smiles, small but pleased. "I will look forward to training you, Anakin. In time, you may become one of the most powerful Force users ever."
For some reason, Din isn't sure that's a good thing. Being powerful means attracting more attention, and that's the last thing they need.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Mando'a Translations:
dar'jetii - Sith (literally: not Jedi)
ade - children, sons, daughters
aliit - family, clan
Jetii - Jedi
buir - father, mother
beskar'gam - armor
demagolka - someone who commits atrocities, a real-life monster, a war criminal (from the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mando psyche)
ner - my, mine
ad'ika - little one
kute - underwear, bodysuit, something worn under armor