World Tree MUSH

    The snowfall was heavy up in the mountains where the resistance fighters were based. Balmorra wasn't known for its snow, but only because other planets were practically bellow zero all the time. Fighters and their families huddled for warmth around campfires and heaters, cooking food from freshly caught game.

    There was less and less of it as time went on, thanks to Garo's insatiable need for extravagant feasts. Commander Thane's message was simple: "Kyras wishes to speak to you, though she didn't give a reason why. I got a hunch it has something to do with the little guy."

    On a peak, Talia sat and waited, her cloak blowing in the wind as she watched over the encampment, focusing in the Force. She was patient, as a Jedi should be, though er thoughts wandered.

    On recieving the message from Commander Thane, Mando considered it for a beat. But he didn't need to think twice. Altering his course for Balmorra, the Razor Crest dipped into lightspeed and made the jump for the planet.
    Touching down some distance away from the resistance encampment and hoofing it the rest of the way, the beskar-clad bounty hunter made his way up the mountain to meet with another jedi about The Child in his care. Talia doesn't wait too long before the bounty hunter makes his presence known with a soft clearing of his throat, shifting his cloak aside to reveal the bundle at his hip where the wide-eyed youngling rests slung in his sidepouch.
    "You called?"

    The rebels gave the Mandalorian and the child a wide berth. Mandalorians were known for their ferocity in combat, and not everyone had quite figured out what to make of the little guy either. Still, he had proven himself an ally. It was best to not get in his way.

    Talia's head bobbed up and down when she heard the Mandalorian speak, "I wish we could've done this sooner, but circumstances made things difficult for us to discuss Grogu." She said simply, before she stood and turned, approaching the Beskar warrior and his companion. Kneeling before them, Talia reached a hand out to Grogu, looking at him with a gentle, sad smile. "You've been through so much, little one...and there is so much pain ahead of all of us."

    Circumstances have been difficult. With Talia fighting her war and Mando evading the remnants of the Empire as best he can. But finally a quiet moment has come for this very important talk.
    "Urr?" The Child responds almost immediately at the use of his name, though Mando seems taken aback for a beat, looking between jedi and the youngling literally hanging from his side.
    "Grogu?" He did not see that coming, clearly, and on saying the little one's name, The Child looks up to him in response, before reaching out a small hand to Talia's.
    "... This is about his training isn't it?" The bounty hunter says, at length. "I've been quested to find a jedi to take him in."

    Talia nodded slowly as she took the boy's hand. "It is. I could feel him the moment we met. His essence is powerful, but he requires training. His species age very slowly...I don't know the specifics. I've only met one of his kind before, and it was at the end of their life."

    She could feel, even see, the things Grogu had gone through. A slaughter at the Jedi Temple, fear, uncertainty, being scurried away by figures she couldn't make out. It was all too much for an infant to take in. A tear ran down Talia's cheek as she swallowed back a sob. A dark future awaited the Jedi Order, a future Grogu and the Mandalorian were already living.

    Taking a breath, Talia maintained her composure. "You've searched for Jedi. And you've found two. I don't know if I can be the master Grogu needs...but I won't let your quest be in vain." She said to the Mandalorian, standing up to him. "I will do what I can. But I require the child's permission. I...I don't have it in me to separate you by force."

    Mando waits while Talia rallies. He's silent and stoic, but also he knows when it's best to wait and let someone recover before pressing on, while watching Grogu and Talia make that connection... What she sees is entirely lost on Mando himself.
    He's no Force sensitive, he's mostly a little clueless right now.
    But it is true. He's searched high and low for Jedi and he's managed to find two...
    Onw turned him down. Now he needs to see what Talia will say.
    And she says it. She's unsure if she can be the master the little one needs but. She's willing to try.
    Shifting his side-pouch off his shoulder to set the little guy down on the ground, Mando takes to a knee to be closer to the child's level.
    "You hear that, little guy? She's willing to help." He says, prompting Grogu to look from him to Talia and back.
    ... Before he clings to Mando's knee-pad.
    "..." ... "Come on kid, don't make this hard." He says with a surprisingly gentle tone.

    It was a lot to take in, seeing Grogu's memories. Anybody would be shaken. Talia took a moment as she held the child's hand. "Grogu...I want to help you however I can. I know this is a lot, little one." She said, gentle and warm as she looked at the child eye to eye. "I have faith in you, child." She squeezed his hand, before looking to the Mandalorian. "Has he used his powers lately?" Talia asked.

    Grogu's attention shifts, locking onto Talia's eyes while he remains latched to Mando's leg, responding with a childish burble.
    "He has." Mando answers. "... Sometimes to protect me, or others that we're acquainted with." He admits, gently nudging the child off his leg-plate.
    It is a lot, but the youngling regards Talia with a measure of wary curiosity. As though he were afraid to be separated from his beskar-clad father figure.

    Talia nodded. "It's not often a child so young manifests. But we're getting sidetracked." She gently patted Grogu's head. "I won't separate you, but I do ask that you drop by more often." She said to the Mandalorian, "I can see plainly he's not ready to be trained yet, at least on a regular basis. It has to be his choice. For now, I can help teach him and focus his abilities, but I can't be his master. Not yet. He has attachment, to you. I've seen what tearing someone away from their loved ones does to them, and it's...ugly."

    Attachment. To Mando. That's what's keeping the kid from being trained.
    The Mandalorian heaves an aggrieved sigh, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck.
    "We'll stop by more often." Mando decides at length. If that will make things easier to work on slowly helping the kid with his training, they may as well. But he does have to ask, being clueless about The Force: "What's so bad about attachment?"

    Talia swallowed. He wasn't at the briefing when she explained her story. Or really, a lot of things. "To a Jedi, we must be mindful of everything. We can't let emotions cloud our judgement, such as having..." A knot was felt in Talia's gut. "When we lose people we care about."

    She let out a heavy sight before she sat and patted the space besides her. "I've only been a Jedi knight for a year and a half. My master...my friends, his other students, we were sent to go after someone. A Sith Lord, a...very dangerous 'darjeti'." She began to explain. "We were betrayed. By one of our own. He...the Sith killed everyone, except me." Rifling through her pack, she retrieved a cube of some sort. "He wanted this, in a tomb. I got it first, he's hunted me ever since."

    Emotions. Judgment. Attachments. There's so much about The Force that Mando knows so little about.
    But he can tell when someone is having a hard time explaining something due to personal loss.
    So when Talia sits herself down, The Mandalorian hunkers himself to the ground as well, T-visored helmet staring the jedi down silent and level.
    "I'm sorry." It may come unexpected. Sympathy from a Mandalorian. But he is human.
    Both Mando and Grogu look to the cube that is produced. Grogu reeeeeeeaaaches for it.
    "... What is it?"

    Talia raised the cube to Grogu. "A holocron. A repository of ancient knowledge, only one with the Force can access it." She said, as the cube began to glow and pulse softly. "It holds information regarding the genes of Force users. A way to...breathe life into beings, make them powerful in the Force." She began to let the cube float in front of Grogu. "Angither wants it. To build an army, or make himself more powerful, both, I don't know. All I know is, I can't let him have this."

    The cube is more jedi magic, then. If only jedi can access it, anyway. Mando's helmet dips in a nod as Talia explains what it is.
    So it's simple. Keep that away from Angither.
    "I see." Is all The Mandalorian says at first, before he makes his decision.
    "Well then I guess I can't let him get his hands on it, either." A pause. "If you don't mind the help."
    Grogu is already pawing at the holocron like a toy. Because he probably thinks it is a toy.

    "Yes. Hopefully either, we kill him or we just throw this bloody thing as far away as possible. I've wondered, if throwing it into the ocean across the branches would be enough. Then I remember the look in his eyes, how obsessed with the thing he was. He'd find it, one way or the other." She looked to the Mandalorian, and Grogu, before offering a smile. "Thank you. I...our respective kinds have had our share of conflict, but you've proven yourself a man of honor. Besides, I doubt this little one would want anything to with you otherwise."

    There's no simply getting rid of the thing, is there?
    And while it's true that Mandalorians and jedi have had... Disagreements in the past, Mando here at least can confirm that he lives by honor over all else.
    "So then we kill him." Simple as that, Mando suggests it.
    And that was 'we' that he said.
    "I've got a disruptor rifle." Added almost jokingly.
    Almost.
    But then he looks to the kid. "I couldn't just let the Empire take him."

    Talia chuckled. "If only."

    She eyed Grogu again, patting his head softly. "Where DID you find him anyways? I can't imagine it was by accident. I have to wonder if destiny had a hand in your paths crossing. Maybe it had something to do with ours crossing as well."

    "He was a bounty." The bounty hunter explains. "Imperial remnants posted the job. It was as sketchy as it sounds." He says, most likely frowning under the impassive face of that helmet. "I brought him in but." But he pauses. "I couldn't just let them take him. So I busted him back out. We've been on the run ever since."
    Simple as that. Always running, always hiding from the Empire even after the Empire supposedly died out.

    "I see. Did you ever figure out what the reasons were? I can't imagine a little one like Grogu causing too much trouble." Talia said, sighing. A pity, that these people would be so craven as to target a child.

    "If it'll help, I can lead you to a Mandalorian enclave. Here, the clans are strong. They can protect you and Grogu...they might be happy to see a Jedi with them, but they won't turn away a brother and a child in need."

    "I haven't." Mando admits. "It's a mystery what they could want with him. But I'd rather not find out the hard way." Mando mutters. Right before Talia offers to show the way to where he can find other Mandalorians.
    "I'd like that. It'd be a relief to be around kin again."

    Talia nodded slowly. "The planet Burentep is a harsh land full of storms and predators, it's the kind of place that people don't go to unless they wish to be unseen. The Ramsair clan swore an oath of vengeance against Angither for destroying their former homeworld, they can be called upon to aid a friend."

    "Burentep. Ramsair clan. Got it." Mando murmurs as Talia tells him where to go. IT could be a good place to lay low for a while. "I'll be back with the kid soon." He says, starting to pick himself up. "We should go, for now."

    Talia nodded. "Look after the little one, Mandalorian. I look forward to his first lesson." She offered them both a smile, and Grogu even received a little snack for his trouble, something full of nutrients. Good for growing goblin babies. "May the Force be with you."