Bankor

Away from the affected area, Oddyn finally put the four kids on the ground, onto some concrete slab that had once been a wall. He sat himself and removed his helmet, looking at the young survivors.

"Ok kids, you live. What are you going to do with it?"

The children looked at him with confusion and then each other and then back to him. They were obviously not sure as they had lost everything. Around them other refugees and survivors were trying to make sense of the situation.

"Do you have anyone to get back to?" Odd wasn't great with empathising, but he got out a bottle of water and tossed to them. He looked at their faces, one by one, trying to get a better idea of what kind of kids he had saved.

Two were human and one was zabrak, one human was a male the rest were female by the look of them. The human male took the water and said, “I don’t know.”

The other two were quiet.

"Well, kids, your town is a rubble, your family is likely gone. Some may still live if you're lucky. You can now wander off to do what you want, or you can stick with me for a while until things are figured out." He eyed the boys and the girls, wondering if his armour was no creeping them out because of other people who had worn similar.

The boy said, “Mandu are killers.”

The zabrak girl said softly, “Is it all gone?” The final girl was still silent.

"Sure, I'm a killer. Just not a killer of you, nor your family. But peace is a lie, kid. War always comes back. In this world you either learn how to kill or you end up a victim. Things I learned when I was your age, when one of the Mandu you hate sold me into slavery." He paused, looking at the girl. "Maybe, maybe not. You can stick around to find out, but I won't be getting back here."

The kids really didn’t understand and just shrugged. The parents of the human girl arrived and whisked her away offering shallow thanks to the Mandalorian.

The zabrak girl said, “So what makes peace a lie?”

"You may hope it will last, but it will not. It makes you soft and unprepared for war." He gestured around. "Like that."

“War came when the mandu came, it was fine before that,” the zabrak girl countered. “You bring war here!”

“Your fault!”

"I actually want to kill the guy who did all this." He smiled forlornly. "Fault me all you like, kid. But it'd be better to fault those who have failed to protect you. I got you out of the fire so you can still do something with your life. Get back to the weak, or try to be strong."

"I don't understand, who are the weak?" she countered.

"Look around." He said calmly.

She looked round and then back to the Mandalorian, “This was my neighborhood, I don’t understand.”

"If the people living here had been strong enough, the neighbourhood would still be here."

“An asteroid hit my town, are you mental?” she said looking at him angrily.

"Launched from an orbital weapon that could have been destroyed before it happened. Or that would have never been deployed if this planet had mounted defences."

“Your point? Mandus lose too, Revan beat you guys up, everyone is weak sometimes,” she said angrily.

"That is true, everybody are weak at some point. But do you know how not to be, kid?"

He knelt to look into her eyes at her level, taking in the girl's anger.

"We have a saying: train your sons to be strong but your daughters to be stronger. The Mandalorians are rarely weak because we teach our children how not to be. I was not born a Mandu. I was taken in and made into one. Now I have a choice: who to save, who to kill, who to let go. I am not afraid of pain, I am not afraid of death. I shape my fate. It's a good life."

He smiled, then looked between both kids.

"Enough talking. Decision time. Staying with me is the hard way, but you have a shot at becoming strong. Or you go back to that ruined world."

"We have nowhere else to go," the girl said. "If you want to be our papa, then ok?"

Oddyn wondered if he had been as 'enthusiastic' when Papa Vizsla had decided to take him in. He frankly didn't remember. He moved his eyes to the boy.

"What are your names?"

The zabrak girl said, "Huti."

The boy was quiet and then said, "Farol."

There wasn't so much a hesitation in him as just a moment of looking ahead, quiet planning. After that while he extended his right hand and rested it on the girl's arm, with firm fatherly care.

"Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad... I know your name as my child, Huti. You are in my custody, care and tutelage now. I'll bring you up to be a strong Mandalorian woman. I vow this."

He glanced at the quiet boy whether he'd also commit.

The boy probably wasn't sure what was happening but put his hand on the Mandalorian's hand.

Oddyn repeated his vows to the other child as well. He had made a gamble there, but he had a gut feeling it was the right thing to do, a logical step after saving kids that would have otherwise died. The way he understood the spirit of Resol'nare, it was primarily about responsibility, and there was a lifetime exercise in it just before him, embodied in those to kids. With the faux foresight he had been venturing into seeing them mature and strengthen through training and resolve. If he was not fortunate to exact his vengeance on Varo Kryze, he was now at least ensuring that this banner just might be carried on by these two, with equally good reasons to pursue vendetta against the butcher of Rygor.

Oddyn presented his arms to both. "Hop in. I'll spirit you away, find you some safehouse to weather the rest of this conflict. Soon I'll take you off this world, to Concordia, our home. I am Oddyn Vizsla, and you are Huti Vizsla and Farol Vizsla."