Aliit ori'shya tal'din.

The phrase ran through my mind once again as I stood there and watched as one by one my students passed their exams. None of the proctors seemed impressed, naturally. I never expected them to. I made my way over to Shiny and rested a hand on his shoulder with a smile, "Nervous, kid?"

He looked up at me and shook his head, "No, sir. Just..." He paused and shook his head, "just not nervous."

I gave him a slap on his shoulders. He had filled out since he joined. He stood just below two meters, got muscles - it was amazing at what a little nutrition could do for a kid. No longer was he a lanky little boy. Shiny had become one of my best students even if he wanted to believe that everyone and their mother was better than him. Had he a different upbringing, that kid could have been an officer and had I any way of getting us both out, I would have snatched him up and ran with him in a heartbeat. We both had our place, though, and it was in the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps.

He and all those other kids deserved more of a life than what they were getting, and that was where the Republic had failed them.

"Cadet 65780," the proctor finally called, and Shiny stood up with his training rifle in hand and gave me one quick half-smile before he stepped through the doors and into the elevator which lowered him down into the simulation room.

"How much faith do you have in your pet orphan, Clone?" One of the proctors asked as we watched Shiny brace himself.

I gave him one quick cursory glance and smiled when I saw that he was a Lieutenant. "More faith than I have in you." The look on his face when he snapped his head to me was utterly priceless.

The timer sounded, and I watched Shiny take off down the lane, firing his blaster and hitting every single target like he had been doing this thing his entire life. None of my cadets had finished the simulation yet. They weren't expected to, but with Shiny's momentum, I had a good feeling in my gut. He was going to make it.

"Look at him! With that sort of skill... Why hasn't he been transferred to Scarif?"

"He's too short," I replied as I stopped attempting to keep a grin off of my face as I watched him clear low walls with an ease that only street rats could possibly hope to have.

His performance was impeccable. I saw all of the instructors watching him and muttering as he passed them with a quick salute and sat down back beside me, chest heaving and face composed. I put one hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Like I said, sir," he looked at me with one of those smiles that pulled just one corner of his mouth up, "not nervous."

*

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't pacing as I waited for him to come back from the Commodore's office, but my comms went off instead before he arrived. I hit the button to find a flustered Lieutenant Markan on the other end, "Kando, you're not going to believe this. Your cadet, 65780, he just... he turned down Commodore Morrissey."

I wanted to scream. He had ruined his one singular chance to get out of grunt work, to make something of himself in the bureaucratic nightmare that was the Imperial Military. He wasn't going to get another chance. "Thank you for letting me know, Markan."

I switched comm channels and tried my best to control myself as I called out, "Neemo, send out an announcement that Cadet 65780 is to report to Captain Kando's office immediately."

He showed up not long later, eyes averted and shifting uneasily on his feet as he stood at attention in front of me, "Cadet 65780 reporting as instructed, sir."

I marched forward with his file and slapped him across the back of the head with it, "What were you thinking?" I half-shouted the question as he reached up to rub the spot where I had hit him. "This was a once in a lifetime chance, Shiny! You could have gotten out-!"

"And done what, sir?" He asked with more bite in his voice than I was used to. "No matter what I do or who promotes me, I'll always be an orphan with some whore mother who dropped him on the steps of a kids' home because she wouldn't take care of him! Kriff, even the Commodore said it! I wasn't an outstanding cadet. I was an "exemplary cadet given the rather unfortunate circumstances and handicaps present". I'm nothing to them. I will always be nothing to them! At least I'm..." he trailed off, any fire or fight he had seeming to leave him all at once. He dropped his eyes again, "At least here I'm still an orphan who has some worth, you know? I'm not a charity case with you and the others. I don't want to be some Commodore's charity case. "

It clicked.

The Commodore had looked at him and gone "Well, you're not really worth it, but your skills are valuable so I'll sponsor you despite objections". I didn't blame him. If I were him, I probably would have told him to take his promotion and shove it, too.

I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder as he looked up at me, "Sorry I smacked you, Shiny."

"I think I kinda deserved it."

"Nah. That old shabuir is a bastard anyway. I'm kinda glad you're sticking around," I grinned at him, making one of those little half-smiles come to his face, "because someone needs to keep Blondie's ego in check."

And I was happy.

Shiny reminded me of myself at his age - well, relatively. He practiced too hard. He overthought everything. He didn't want to lead anything even if his life depended on it. I had adopted him in my own way, taken him under my wing in a way I didn't do with any of my other students, and in a way that I came to realize was a lot like what I did to Talen.

I always used to tell myself that someday I would have a family.

That I'd have sons of my own to carry on a legacy.

To say my name when I was gone.

To remember me when so many would forget.

I realized as I watched those cadets graduate several months later that Shiny was my legacy.

Talen was my legacy.

Not many people would remember me when I was gone, but I knew they would. They were the sons I dreamed of having those nights when I would think about Seku and the life we'd have when the war was finally over. Despite everything, those two boys were good people. They were kind at heart, even if what they were doing was unforgiving work. Even now when I'm sitting here in my tent on Mimban, I have Shiny sitting in here with me, keeping me some sort of company through the endless nights of just waiting. The war has beaten him down, but it hasn't broken him.

And I'm proud.

If I could have brought him with me to Clan Ordo, back to Wy'buir, back to Ros'buir and Kothe, back to Red and Grek, and back to Seku, I would have done it in a heartbeat. The thing was, and the thing that still haunts me even now is that at this moment, as I'm looking at him going over field maps halfheartedly, I think he'd follow me. He'd go wherever I ask him to. That sort of influence is scary, but I console myself with the knowledge that it's because he trusts me.

"Hey, Shiny," I ask and he looks up, eyes suddenly a bit brighter and interested. He doesn't say a word. He doesn't usually speak much, so I'm not surprised, but his eyes ask me what I want. "Do you trust me?"

He gives me a look that asks me if I'm a di'kut. "Of course, I do. You're one of the only people I trust completely."

"Why?"

The question catches him off-guard and makes him pause. "You've always been fair to me. You've always been there. You..." he hesitates before something in his expression just goes "Ah, kriff it", "You've been more of a father to me than I've ever had in my life - more than some of my classmates' actual fathers have been to them. I owe you for that. For giving me a chance."

I don't think that kid has any idea just how much those words meant to me, and I don't think I could ever find the words to explain it to him, so I settle on smiling instead, "Thanks, kid."

All he gives me is one of his little half-smiles back.

That was all the affirmation I need.

*

All hell broke loose the next day. The Mimbanese had pulled a sneak attack and were blowing us away in our camp. Shiny was by my side the entire time, eyes locked on me and the carnage around him. He never questioned me once. He followed me blindly wherever I went, charging forward side by side with me like he was a born and bred Kaminoan Clone. For a moment, when we stopped to defend a group of drivers, I swore he was. I felt like I did back when it was just Grek, Red, Tor, and I - the four of us against the world, back to back, guns ablaze against slavers and terrorists. I felt whole again, like I had a true squad at my back for the first time in a long time.

It felt...

It felt right.

We found the other cadet, Blondie, but I knew from the second I saw that hollow look in his eyes that the kid was already gone.

We lost him in the chaos.

The other one, Twitch, was dead when we found him.

The only ones of our squad that were left were me and Shiny, and neither of us were going down without a fight. I knew that Shiny wasn't going to die that day. He fought like a kriffing Nexu. When his blaster overheated, he fought them with the gun itself. He'd make one hell of a Mandalorian one day, I told myself when I watched him fight one of the rebels with their own weapons like he had been doing it his whole life.

If we survived, I was going to offer it to him. I was going to give him the gai bal manda and make him my son. We were going to go to Concordia. I'd introduce him to Wylan and Seku. I would let him work with me on the farm, forge him his own beskar'gam, teach him how to use a beskad. I knew he'd be good at that, especially with Wy'buir as a teacher. For a few moments, amid the chaos, I saw the future we could have - the one that eluded me after all this time. It was getting laid out before me. My way out was becoming clear.

But just as quickly as those doors opened, they were slammed closed in my face.

We had hit a clearing, and as I was looking around to get my bearings, I caught the lens flare of a sniper. Shiny didn't see it when I did, and it wasn't aimed at me.

See, you always think you'll be afraid when you decide to make a sacrifice like that.

I never was. Not for one instant.

There was never another option in my mind.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him down to the ground as the shot hit me in my chest. I dropped to one knee and took aim, shooting the shab right through his scope with one shot of my rifle. I was proud for the brief second, I had before I fell backward.

Shiny caught me. I didn't know exactly what he said. The world was a blur, but he pulled my helmet off and his words died on his lips when he did. We both knew.

"I'll find you a medic," he stuttered out after a moment, but I just kept smiling up at him. He knew the one. I know he did. I always gave it to him when he would try to overexplain himself. "I'll just... You wait here and I'll bring someone back..." I could hear it in his voice - that frustration that came along with helplessness. It was breathy and anxious. I knew I needed to center him, to help him stay alive.

"They won't make it," I kept my voice was steady and slow. He looked away. I knew how he felt, but I needed him to focus. I reached up and grabbed his bucket, turning it back to me and giving it a shake, "Listen, you need to find the rest and keep the walkers safe. We cannot let those rebels win this, you hear me?"

He didn't reply for a long time. I knew what he was going through, but he needed to grieve later.

"Vod," I gave his bucket another little shake, "do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

I held up one of my hands and smiled at him when he did. He looked at it for a moment and grabbed ahold of it. He was holding onto it like it would keep me alive. "You'll be alright, vod. You barely need me anymore anyway."

"Not entirely true," I could hear the strain in his voice. He was trying to sound like he was smiling, but I think he knew I wasn't buying it when his voice shifted to keep the sob from creeping into it. "Vode an, Kando."

It hit me. Hard. I had taught him the phrase when we arrived when I stopped thinking of him as a student and started thinking of him as my brother instead. He remembered there at the end of everything. "Vode an, Shiny."

I had to stop myself from crying as he laid me down and sprinted off, doing exactly what I told him to do. I knew he was going to live at the end, and as I looked up into the sky and closed my eyes, I pictured a small farm on Concordia with a green twi'lek waiting for me.

I was ready to go home.

*

When I came to, I wasn't dead.

That was enough of a surprise on its own.

I awoke in a medical tent with a bacta pack wrapped around my chest. It hurt like hell, but I was alive. I didn't think I would ever feel regret about that, but I did. I made it out and Shiny didn't. I never got the chance to offer him an out. So, I laid there, staring up at the tent, until I heard footfalls hitting the hard slab of duracrete that had been hastily poured to make some semblance of a floor.

"He's awake!" I recognized the familiar Concordian drawl as I forced myself to sit up, and it was then that I caught a look at who was speaking. Ros with his grey hair and a cockeyed grin was looking at me and laughing, "Knew it was going to take more than a blaster bolt to kill you, verd'ika!"

"Ros?" I asked as I pushed myself up on my elbows, barely believing that I was actually seeing him. "Did you...?"

"Me? I'm too old for that sort of thing these days. Thank your jeti'ika. He's the one who pulled off a miracle," Ros leaned up against one of the tent poles and thumbed outside.

I followed the gesture and saw Talen for the first time.

Talen and my brothers. Red had grown his hair out and dyed it some more, still keeping it in a bun. His beskar'gam was every bit as eccentric as he was with swirling patterns woven to tell his story. He was a living biography. Grek was dressed up in dark beskar, his head tattooed now to match the rest of him, but he was practically the same. He still stood tall and broad and had the same booming laugh that I still recalled.

And then there was Talen. He was barely the same person. His hair had grown out and hung past his shoulders, pulled back from his face with braided leather. He didn't wear robes anymore, exchanging them for practical Smuggler's garb instead, and the lightsaber at his hip was new. Gone was the round face of a boy, and in its place were the lines of a man who had seen things too young and too often.

"Hey! Kid! Kando's awake!" Ros called when all I did was stare.

Talen turned and almost sprinted to the tent with the other two in tow. "Kando!" Red almost shoved past him and grabbed my hand with one of his dorky smiles, "You're alive!"

"You should have seen what Tal did," Grek grinned at me. "He put his hands right over your wound and managed to heal a decent chunk of it. It's the only reason you're breathing."

I looked up at Talen, who was passing a hand sheepishly over his neck, "You can do that?"

"It's... an old technique. We didn't really use it anymore, and I am surprised it even worked," Talen smiled down at me, looking like that padawan I remember him being. "Glad to see you breathing, Kando."

"Kinda glad to be breathing," I smiled up at him before I knew I had to ask. "Did... Did you see a stormtrooper nearby? Young, early twenties?"

Talen frowned, "No. You were the only one around. Why?"

"He... he was one of my students and a good friend. I just wanted to know if he made it or not."

Shiny was alive. Or at least made it away from me. That was enough for me.

"Once you're rested, we'll load you up and take you home," Red assured me as I let myself fall back onto the medical bed with a relieved sigh.

I couldn't kriffing wait.

*

They dropped me off on the outskirts of the farmstead. When I walked up the dirt path, I saw Beten poke his head out of a bale of hay and chirp wildly as he sprinted off to the house. The door opened after he jumped in through the window, and the figure of a tall man emerged, rifle in arm, and he paused at the doorway, slowly letting the rifle lower. Behind him came a twi'lek as green as the fields of Ryloth.

I would've recognized Seku and Wylan if I was blind.

She dropped the basket of fruits she was holding and sprinted down the path to me, flinging herself into my arms. We hadn't seen one another in almost eighteen years, but being in her arms with her wrapped in mine, no words shared between us... it was right.

I followed her down the path to Wylan, who rested the rifle up against the door before he looked me up and down. He never said a word as he grabbed me and embraced me. For the first time, I couldn't keep myself from crying.

I was home.