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The castle was built of stone, steel and glass. Its rooms are horribly cold, the wind blows in, making the corridors even colder.
All this, however, doesn't bother her. Neither does the storm raging outside.
The rain hits the windows hard, with such force as if it wanted to break them into small pieces. She knows that glass, unlike stone walls, will never be more durable.
And although centuries have passed since Satine's death the glass is holding up quite well, the petrified shell that Bo-Katan has always had around her is beginning to crumble. And she is no longer in control of it.
For a few days after the Nite Owls have left, she is a complete mess. It's as if she's in despair over her own fate.
She hasn't had time to mourn Satine's death, and now she's falling apart as everything she tried to hold on to falls with her...
Her comlink is silent, as if the whole galaxy has forgotten she exists.
And for a while it just is.
As if everyone has forgotten.
The days are filled with remorse, memories, thoughts and pleas for the nightmares to go away. But they never go away.
There is no Mandalore, no Kryze clan, no Darksaber... there is nothing left for her to fight for.
She is alone.
✦
“There's nothing left.”
She watches Din walk away together with the little green baby, who doesn't leave him for a moment. She hears his ship fly away and she is all alone again.
After a moment, she sighs and walks over to the windows through which the sun is breaking through.
She looks out at a world she has so far only seen in dreams. Kalevala was always just the past...
“You quickly write everything off.”
Bo-Katan doesn't turn around, but immediately recognizes the voice.
“Aren't you tempted to see Mandalore?”
“There's nothing there,” Bo-Katan says and turns her head.
She doesn't want to see it.
“Have you checked?” he asks.
“We were there together,” she replies.
He sighs.
“Where is the Bo-Katan who fought for all this?”
“She's gone... with everything we were, Fenn Rau.” she says quietly, looking him in the eye.
He was the reason the fight against the Empire wasn't so onerous. Fenn stayed by her side to the very end, protecting her fiercely.
“It's not all gone,” he says.
Bo-Katan nods. She knows.
“She is safe where she is. She is happy... happier than she would ever be with me,” she whispers, knowing that he hears every word she says.
“You're her mom.” Fenn says quietly and looks at her.
He wants to catch her in his arms.
“That's why I have to protect her.”
She straightens up.
Din risks a lot by taking his child everywhere she goes. She doesn't, having learned from her mistakes. She wants something better for her child than the cold of Kalevala or the ruins of Mandalore.
Fenn knows this. She is their future. The last heir of their clan.
“Just... don't forget... you're not alone, Bo. Not yet,” he says.
She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again there is only her again. A moment later, an obsolete droid appears bringing an encrypted message.
And then Bo-Katan smiles slightly for the first time in a long time.
She sits down on the throne and turns on the recording.
“Hello, buir!” Atin's voice is all she needed. “I have learnt the specifications of the komrk!”
She is happy and that is the most important thing.
“Hera says I'm getting better and better and one day I'll be able to join your army. I will fight alongside you!” She says with delight. She talks about her adventures, complains about her studies and mentions the names of her new friends. She doesn't stop smiling for a moment. And then she talks about her father. “He was in my dream. He told me to take care of you. I want to take care of you!”
Bo-Katan smiled softly and held back tears.
The video ends moments later with someone calling out to her almost ten-year-old daughter.
The castle plunges into silence again, but despair seems to linger in the corners.
Bo smiles while playing the recording a few more times. Joy and laughter filled her heart for a moment.
Fenn stayed by her side until the very end, protecting her fiercely. Until someone fired an accurate shot, causing his body to fall to the ground, full of glass pieces. She waddled beside him, dragged by the Nite Owls, fighting to stay with him.
He fell with Mandalore, remained in its ruins.
Though she could still hear his voice, still speak to him she knew she had lost him forever.
Just as she had lost faith that her home could be saved...
Fenn was right though, there was something else left...
...the weekly short recordings, the calls of a few seconds, her daughter's laughter, her dad's eyes, the meetings on Lothal when she was around...
She couldn't give up.
Not today.
She isn’t alone.